SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES BY ELIZABETH HODGES "/ V * ~ .** V LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN CMEGO fe-" < ', . *:' : : SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES /"" U ^ -- :7 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES THEIR (^ASSOCIATIONS PERSONAL, ARCH^OLOGICAL & HISTORIC Illustrated by S. J. LOXTON LONDON T. FISHER UN WIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1895 c/ [All rights reserved.} " If aught mistaken bee, and seem to thee unsound, With pen I pray amend, and not with tongue confound." From " Lives of the Berkeley s." PREFACE. IN thess sketches of SOME ANCIENT GLOUCESTERSHIRE AND WARWICKSHIRE " HOMES " I have purposely omitted such as are already familiar, and introduced the reader to a few of the many old houses which, although lying within sound of the railway whistle, and possess- ing no small amount of historic and personal interest, are still practically but little known. While endeavouring rather to produce a readable and entertaining record than a text-book for the his- torian, the antiquary, or the archaeologist, I have spared no pains to ensure accuracy, and to ascertain facts ; and although authorities are not always cited, no statement has been made nor description given without the most careful -and trustworthy verification. The plan adopted has been to sketch briefly the history of each house through its various owners, from Saxon times onward ; giving, by means of anecdotes, extracts from contemporary letters and records, glimpses of the family and social life of those early days. The first five " Homes " were, during some of the most eventful years of their history, possessed by the io PREFACE. noble families of Berkeley and Fitzhardinge ; the interesting personal details concerning whom have been culled for the greater part from that unique and valuable work, Smyth's " Lives of the Berkeleys," which, under the editorship of Sir John Maclean, F.S.A., has lately been published by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. My thanks are due to them for kindly permitting these copious extracts, and also for the reproduction, from their " Transactions " of Mrs. Bagnall-Oakeley's beautiful sketches of the effigies in Berkeley Church. I have also gratefully to acknowledge the kind and valuable help of various members of that Society ; of the Clifton Anti- quarian Club ; and many others. Particularly of the Right Hon. the Earl and Countess of Denbigh ; Lady Cave, Cleeve Hill ; Admiral Sir Frederick Richards, K.C.B.; Sir John Maclean, F.S.A. ; J. Waldyve C. Willington, Esq., J.P., F.R.H.S. ; Lieut-Col. Bramble, F.S.A. ; Alfred Hudd, Esq., F.S. A.; Francis F. Tuckett, Esq., F.R.G.S. ; the Revs. Ch. Taylor, M.A., Ed- ward Hasluck, M.A., Alfred Pontifex, M.A., A. S. Onslowe, M.A., T. P. Wadley, M.A. ; T. D. Nichol- son, Esq., M.D. ; Francis C. Penrose, M.A. ; Vincent Perkins, Esq. ; John Latimer, Esq. ; Mr. Norris Matthews ; the late Mr. John Taylor ; Miss Evans, Wyken House, Coventry ; and Miss Garlick, Beverston Castle, to all of whom I am very considerably indebted. ELIZABETH HODGES. THE TRIANGLE, CLIFTON, Bristol. CONTENTS PACE CHAP. I. WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE AND BRADLEY COURT II. BEVERSTON CASTLE ... 4 72 IV. YATE COURT III. RODWAY MANOR IOO T 26 V. CALUDON CASTLE VI. KINGSBURY AND HURLEY HALL J 57 VII. LITTLE SODBURY MANOR VIII. HORTON COURT IX. BIDFORD GRANGE ... '" 2 44 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 1 . WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE, SHOWING LISLE HOUSE ON SITE OF ANCIENT BERKELEY MANSION ... Frontispiece 2. MONUMENTAL BRASSES IN CHURCH (THOS. IV., LORD BERKELEY, AND HIS WIFE MARGARET)... ... 3! 3. ENTRANCE TO CHURCHYARD FROM LISLE HOUSE ... 40 4. BRADLEY COURT ... ... ... ... 43 5. BEVERSTON CASTLE (NORTH-WEST VIEW) FROM BUCK*S ENGRAVING, A.D. 1732 ... ... ... $O 6. THE BARBICAN ... ... ... ... 58 7. BEVERSTON CASTLE AS AT PRESENT (SOUTH-EAST VIEW) ... ... ... ... ... 60 8. WINDOW OF GUARD-ROOM ... ... ... 64 9. RODWAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD ... ... 75 10. CARVED MANTELPIECE, RODWAY MANOR ... ... 9! 11. TUDOR STAIRCASE ... ... ... ... 95 12. SHIELD OF ARMS OVER FRONT DOOR ... ... 98 13. SEAL OF RALPH DE WILLINGTON, 1 230 ... ... IO3 14. GATEWAY OF YATE COURT ... ... ... IO5 15. REMAINS OF SQUARE TOWER ... ... ... IO8 16. YATE CHURCH ... ... ... ... 124 17. SEAL OF LORD HENRY BERKELEY ... ... 133 1 8. REMAINS OF BANQUETING HALL, CALUDON CASTLE... 137 19. EFFIGY OF LADY KATHERINE, FIRST WIFE OF LORD HENRY BERKELEY ... ... ... ... 142 1 4 US T OF ILL US TRA TIONS. PAGE 20. EFFIGY OF LORD HENRY BERKELEY ... ... 150 21. INTERIOR OF BANQUETING HALL, WITH REMAINS OF LOWER ROOM ... ... ... ... 153 22. KINGSBURY HALL AND CHURCH (FROM " HISTORIC WARWICKSHIRE," BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL COMPANY, LTD.) ... 165 23. HURLEY HALL ... ... ... ... 173 24. PORTRAIT OF WALDYVE WILLINGTON (FROM PAINTING ON PANEL, HURLEY HALL) ... ... ... 185 25. EARLY ARMS OF WILLINGTON ... ... ... 189 26. MANOR HOUSE, LITTLE SODBURY... ... ... 192 27. HEAD OF TYNDALE (FROM AN OLD PRINT IN THE BAPTIST COLLEGE, BRISTOL) ... ... ... 2OI 28. THE OLD CHURCH, LITTLE SODBURY, BEFORE ITS DEMOLITION IN 1858 (SOUTH ELEVATION) ... 206 29. THE OLD CHURCH, LITTLE SODBURY, BEFORE ITS DEMOLITION IN 1858 (WEST ELEVATION 1 ) ... 2O7 30. REMAINS OF CHURCH, SHOWING STOUP FOR HOLY WATER ... ... ... ... ... 2IO 31. HORTON COURT, SOUTH VIEW ... ... ... 219 32. ARMS OF PROTHONOTARY KNIGHT ... ... 226 33. HORTON COURT, SHOWING NORMAN PORTION ... 235 34. INSCRIBED STONE BUILT INTO GARDEN WALL, HORTON COURT ... ... ... ... ... 240 35. HEAD OF SHAKESPEARE (TAKEN FROM AN IMPRESSION OF BURBAGES'S RING) ... ... ... 246 36. BIDFORD GRANGE IN 1830 (FROM AN OLD DRAWING IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR) ... ... 251 37. "SHAKESPEARE'S CRAB-TREE" ... ... ... 257 38. BIDFORD GRANGE AS AT PRESENT ... ... 263 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. & CHAPTER I. WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE AND BRADLEY COURT. FRINGING the lower slopes of the Cotswolds, or nest- ling in the sheltered valleys that break their somewhat bare and rugged outline, may be seen the gabled roofs and entwisted chimneys of many an ancient mansion, which, neglected or forgotten by the traveller as he rushes through the valley below to noisy seaport or busy city, will prove perfect mines of interest to those who care to search. But it must be a patient and loving search ; for houses, like people, reveal their secrets only to those who care for them. And it is the " secrets " of these old houses, their intimate associa- tions with the varied personalities of their sometime occupants, that give them real and lasting interest. The antiquary may describe, with archaeological accu- 1 6 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. racy, how this arch is of " Anglo-Saxon " date ; this moulding of " Norman " workmanship, the clustered pillars " Early English." He may go into archaeo- logical raptures over the groining of the roof, the elegant tracery of the windows ; but unless he can tell us something of the men whose martial footsteps or jovial song made the roof ring ; or of the women, watching from those traceried windows for the coming of lord or lover who, perchance, came no more, or came borne on his shield from foray or battle little emotion is excited within us, little impression registered on the tablet of our brain. In the following pages I have endeavoured to clothe with something of human warmth and interest the stony skeletons of a few of these ancient mansions. Among the earliest of them, and perhaps, because of its all but utter demolition, the most forgotten, is Wotton-under-Edge, which stood on the site of the present Lisle House. Wotton-under-Edge was, in Leland's time, "a praty market town well occupied with clothiers, havyinge one faire long strete and well buyldyd in it ; and it stondithe clyvinge toward the Rotes of an Hill." This description of its situation (really one of the prettiest in England) still applies ; but the " market " has dwindled to vanishing-point, and the " clothiers " are almost non-existent, owing partly to the obstinate refusal of the inhabitants to have the railway brought within range. WO TTON- UNDER-EDGE AND BRA DLEY COURT. 17 The manor of Wotton, consisting of " fifteen hides and i yard of land," was part of the great lordship of Berkeley at the time of the general Survey ; Roger de Berkeley being the then owner. Robert Fitzhardinge also possessed land at Combe and Huntingford, near to Wotton. This Robert, founder of the Fitzhardinge family, was son of Harding, Praepositor, or Perfect, of Bristol, and grandson of Alnod, or Ednothus, a Saxon Thane Master of the Horse to Edward, Harold, and William. He was high in favour with Maud and Prince Henry, who when a boy studying in Bristol probably often visited at his house, and whom in the subsequent struggle for the crown he aided with men and money. Roger de Berkeley (grandson of the first Roger), on the contrary, refusing to take either side, or, according to Ricart, to pay his fee-farm rent, incurred the royal displeasure, and Henry, 1150-1, deprived him of the lordship of Berkeley and bestowed it upon Robert Fitzhardinge. A deadly feud resulted, ultimately healed, however, by a double marriage (suggested, it is said, by the politic Henry) Maurice, son of Fitzhardinge, wedding Alice, daughter of Roger ; and Maurice's sister, Helena, mating with the heir of the Berkeleys. Maurice, who took the title of Lord Berkeley, was married in great state in Bristol, at the grand new stone mansion which his father had then recently built on the banks of the Frome ; Henry and Stephen, who had 1 8 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. been spending their Christmas amicably together at Oxford, being present, together with a large gathering of lords and ladies. Maurice's son Robert dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother Thomas ist, who, about the year 1210, ^\.i, -.ii ; ' I T- ?vl v ' i s-^S'-' I BEVERSTON CASTLE. 53 carry her possessions with her ; and the weak or desperate husband seeking redress in the courts of law, while the noble castle and wide domains which had come down to him through many generations, passed into the possession of his powerful neighbour. Verily, life in the Middle Ages had, too, its seamy side ! I' 1 : 349 Lord Thomas, having completed the renovation of his mansions of Wotton and Berke- ley, began to "re-edify" Beverston, extending and enlarging the ancient structure, but retaining its lower and more perfect portions. Judging from the traces that remain and the various parts still standing, the castle as rebuilt must have been a fine and imposing structure. It was quadrangular in form, with a massive square tower and several smaller ones ; connected, on the west side at least, by a curtain, which contained a chapel, oratory, galleries, and various other rooms. A large banqueting hall occupied nearly the whole of the south side ; the entrance to the court- yard being by a gateway or barbican built over the moat, and defended by two towers, which " advanced their eastern extremities considerably before the gate, something in the shape of the letter D." Leland asserts, on the authority of William, Marquis of Berkeley, great-grandson of Lord Thomas, that " the castle was rebuilt with the ransome of prisoners taken at Poictiers." But this is hardly consistent with the fact that Lord Thomas's own son Maurice, captured 54 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. at the same battle, remained a prisoner in France until his father's death five years afterwards, " because the ransome demanded (6,000 nobles) could not be raised." Unless, indeed, his detention was owing to some un- recorded quarrel between the two which rendered the father indifferent to providing the ransom a not im- probable surmise in the light of the handsome provision made for his young step-brother John. Lord Thomas, like his descendant and namesake, the 5th Thomas, was a great sheep breeder. Soon after becoming possessed of Beverston he, according to Smyth, " bought out divers freeholders' lands that lay intermingled with his own, and stocked them with sheep, shearing in one year in that manor alone 5,775 for the Stroud water woollen factories." He used to frequent the fairs of Gloucester and Tetbury, buying seed, &c., and transacting the ordinary business of a farmer. He also reared vast numbers of pigeons ; part of one of his great pigeon-houses was, until recently, standing near to the castle ; an ancient Bever- stonian asserting that he well remembers the periodical thinning out of its feathered tenants. Beverston, indeed, appears to have been a favourite residence of Lord Thomas, especially after he had settled it upon his second wife, Katherine, and her children. At his death their son John (born at Wotton) suc- ceeded, as also to Kingsweston and other estates, and became the progenitor of the Berkeleys of Beverston. He was knighted by Richard II., but soon soiled his BEVERSTON CASTLE. 55 spurs, being the next year, together with his cousin, Lord Thomas Berkeley, indicted before the justices of the Forest of Dean for " unlawfully killing of the King's deere." He married, ist, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Betteshorn, who brought him much property, including Bistherne, near Ringwood in Hants ; 2nd, Ellinor, daughter of Sir Robert Ashton ; and 3rd, Margaret, widow of Sir Thomas Breouse, of Tetbury, both of whom were well dowered, but had no children. Dying in a good old age, John was succeeded, in 1428, by his son Maurice, whose inherited estates consider- ably exceeded those of James, the then Lord Berkeley. This Sir Maurice shared with St. George the honour of having " killed a dragon," the tradition being preserved in a document at Berkeley Castle, written prior to 1618. " Sir Moris Berkeley," so runs the account, " sonne of Sir John Berkeley, of Beverstone, being a man of great strength and courage in his tyme, there was bread in Hampshire, neare Bistherne, a devouring Dragon, who, doing much mischief upon men and cattell and could not be destroyed but spoiled many in the attempting it, making his den neere unto a Beacon (Burley Beacon, 5 miles from Bistherne). This Sir Moris Berkeley armed himself, and, encountering with it, at length overcame and killed it, but died himself soon after. In memory whereof his children and posterity to this present do beare for their crest a Dragon standing before a burning Beacon." 56 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. Absurd and fabulous as the story sounds in our modern ears, it must rest on some foundation of fact (though what " devouring " beast answered to the name of dragon let antiquaries decide), for various corroborative traces exist to this day : The alleged scene of the fight is still called " Dragon Fields " ; an ancient inn bears the sign of the " Green Dragon " ; while over the front of Bistherne House in a carving of the Berkeley and Betteshorn arms dated 1652, the Beacon and Dragon may be seen . The Beacon is also the crest of the Marquis of Northampton, who is descended from a great-granddaughter of Sir Maurice ; and the supporters of the Northampton arms are Dragons. This Sir Maurice de Berkeley is he who, " with his wife Joanna and Sir Wm. Daubeney, Kt.," were interred in the choir of the Dominican chapel, Rosemary Street, Bristol ; three stone coffins discovered in 1814 beneath that part of the building, having in all probability contained their remains. From Sir Maurice the estates descended without a break through several generations (save that they were confiscated for a short time by Richard III.) until the accession of Sir John Berkeley, married to Francis Poyntz, whom Fosbroke describes as a " dissipated man of talents, of great consideration in the House of Commons " ! and who squandered all his vast property, with the exception of the castle and manor of Bever- ston. These his son John, finding himself too BEVERSTON CASTLE. 57 impoverished to retain, sold in 1597, to Sir John Poyntz ; and, in the hope of retrieving his fortunes, emigrated to Virginia, where he was massacred by the Indians. Thus tragically ended the ancient line of the Berkeleys of Beverston ! Sir John Poyntz did not long possess the manor, selling it shortly to Henry Fleetwood, Master of the Court of Wards, a great " estate monger," who disposed of it to Sir Thomas Earstfield ; but, repurchasing it, finally sold it to Sir Michael Hicks, ancestor of the present Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. In this family it remained until 1842, when it was sold to Robert Holford, Esq., J.P., of the neighbouring manor of Weston Birt. His son, Captain George Lindsay Holford, Equerry to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, is the present owner. Until and during the early half of the seventeenth century Beverston continued to be the occasional residence of the various owners ; but it never regained its ancient grandeur, and, suffering partial demolition from fire and decay, the most habitable part was at length converted into a dwelling-house and let with the farm ; the parish register testifying to the births, deaths, and marriages or many who so occupied it. Side by side with these peaceful records, however, the ancient register contains, in the burials of " several souldiers of the Castle," traces of more stirring times times when Beverston was a royal fortress and sus- tained a siege. 58 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. In the early days of the struggle between Charles and his Parliament, Gloucester, although held by the latter under Colonel Massey, was surrounded by Royalist garrisons -- Sudeley, Berkeley, Newnham, Lydney, Wotton, Tetbury, and Beverston. The first attempt on the castle is thus described in the THE BARBICAN, BEVERSTOX CASTLE. " Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis " : " Beverstone, being newly garrisoned and commanding the rich clothiers of Strood water, was much desired by Colonel Massey, and he determined to attempt its capture. Bringing up his men, he surrounded it, planting his guns within pistol shot of the gate (i.e., the outer gate of the Barbican, which crossed the moat), and firing several times. BEVERSTON CASTLE. 59 Fifty of his musketeers ran up at noon-day and fixed a petard, which, however, failed in execution. Driven from the gate by grenades thrown from within, they nevertheless ran up again, and in full shot of the enemy brought away the petard (evidently " petards " metal cylinders filled with gunpowder were scarce in the Gloucester garrison) ; but the gate being securely barricaded, and night coming on, and no secure retreat for so small a party being near, the city also needing them to garrison it, they retreated." The plucky little band, however, seemed resolved not to return without doing some execution ; so, late though it was, they made a detour through Wotton, and falling upon the enemy's soldiers stationed there, put them to flight. In May, 1644, Colonel Massey made another and successful attempt to capture Beverston. The castle was then held by Colonel Oglethorpe, who appears to have been more "gallant in Jove" than in war; for, having stolen from the castle one night on a courting expedition to one of the neighbouring houses, he was pounced upon by some Parliamentarian scouts and taken prisoner, together with six troopers. Were the troopers love-making too, or did the valiant colonel take them as an escort, or a guard ? Anyway, they were all captured and carried to Gloucester ; and Massey, hearing thereof, hurried from Ross, where he then was, and eliciting from some of the troopers that the castle was left poorly garrisoned, and under the 60 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. command of a raw lieutenant, determined to lose no time in gaining possession of it. Despatches from London detained him until two o'clock in the morning, when he set out again for Ross ; where, mustering his troops, he sent the horse through Gloucester to rendezvous on the morrow three miles from Beverston, and with his foot crossed the Severn at Frampton. Having joined forces, they marched to Beverston, where they first surprised and captured sixty horses feeding under the walls, their guard of six troopers fleeing to give the alarm. Massey then surrounded the castle and summoned it to surrender, promising fair quarter. The terms were agreed to without attempt at defence or parley, both officers and common soldiers marching out without arms, ammunition, or baggage ; the only question which the verdant lieutenant seems to have asked being, what place they intended to attempt next, that he might avoid it, and not run the risk of another capture ! Thus through the foolish dalliance of one officer and the incapacity of another, this important castle was taken " without loss or danger to its assailants." How long Beverston remained in the hands of the Parliamentarians is not stated ; but, like so many other stately buildings, it fared badly at their hands, the fire which destroyed a great part of it, including the farm-house, being caused by them. The house was soon replaced by another, which also was burnt down, 1691, the structure at present standing being built on its site about two hundred years ago. BEVERSTON CASTLE, 63 Probably three successive ' c houses " were burnt out, rather than burnt down, as the original one was built within the old banqueting hall, and the walls of the present structure are said also to largely consist of those of the ancient hall. Some idea of the size of the latter, which was indeed a notable feature of the castle, may be gathered from the fact that the house built within it contains ample room for a good-sized family ! The Rev. Dr. Blunt, late rector of Beverston, writing in 1877, thus describes the parts of the ancient building which time and accident had so far spared, and which, with few exceptions, may be seen at the present time : " The western face of the castle still remains ; a large square tower, 34 feet by 30 feet, at the south end ; a smaller one, 24 feet square, set angularly at the north end, and a curtain between ; the whole side 123 feet long. The great tower, 60 feet high, consists of three storeys ; the lower formed an entry and guard-room, the latter lighted by a beautiful ogee-headed window ; the ascent, by a newel staircase in an octagonal turret (very insecurely attached, now strengthened by an enormous chain) leads to a large room, 33 feet by 25, which appears to have been made into a chapel early in the fifteenth century." " It has," to quote Parker's " Domestic Architecture," vols. iii. and iv., a " good groined vault with ribs and bosses, and a Gothic window, the latter in a separate division forming 64 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. the sacarium, with piscina and two sedilia, having crocketed ogee canopy, finial, pinnacles, and shafts ; the piscina has a basin perfect." The floor above the chapel is occupied by another WINDOW OF GUARD-ROOM, UEVERSTON CASTLE. large chamber, having fireplace and closet, with window of Elizabethan date, shown in illustration (page 51), which is taken from Buck's engraving of 1732. This, the earliest view extant, although not BEVERSTON CASTLE. 65 correct, is valuable as giving a north wall which no longer exists, arid the portion of the moat now filled in. North of this tower, in the curtain, and almost on a level with the room just mentioned, is a smaller and older chapel, or oratory, with, originally, a circular window ; beyond it is another room, and another larger one beyond that, with passage, guarderobes, &c. In the oratory also is a piscina, and, more curious still, double squints on each side ; so that, while accommo- dating only a dozen people, more than a hundred could see and hear from the chambers adjoining. The curtain, although lower than the tower, has also three storeys, the middle one being occupied almost entirely by a noble gallery (now partitioned off and used as a store-room for farm produce) with a stone chimney- piece of eighteenth century date ; the windows are much earlier. The newel staircase, superseded in part by one of Elizabethan construction, led from this gallery, and from the banqueting hall which joined on to the tower, to the oratory ; a straight stone stair- case, built in the thickness of the wall at the north end of the gallery conducting to the basement rooms. These, as has been stated, were the work of Maurice de Gaunt ; the portions beneath the gallery being now used as a dairy and brew-house. Here, also, is the a dismal dungeon," which seems, and not without reason, to have made such an impression upon ancient chroniclers. Bigland locates it under the north tower, but it is really situated 5 66 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. beneath the south end of the curtain ; the entrance (still covered by a trap-door), through which prisoners were let down, being on the west side of the oratory. In later times a doorway was made in what is now the dairy ; so that the visitor, descending four steep steps, may stand in the small square space, lighted by a narrow slit, high in the outer wall, and looking up to the trap-door far above, may try to imagine the sensations of the unfortunate captives as they were lowered to their dismal prison. The upper floors of the north tower fell in some time ago, and nothing remains but the roof, which is modern, and the vaulting of the basement chamber, now used as a coal-cellar. The ancient roofs of the castle have long since disappeared, their places being supplied by others, mostly of tiles, which appear to have been dropped down upon the various chambers in promis- cuous fashion, without the least regard to usage or uniformity, just to " keep the wet out." For instance, the roof of the curtain is placed immediately over the gallery y its ridge forming the " floor " of the room above ; so that if the visitor wishes to inspect the interior of that room and the well-preserved Tudor fireplace it contains would make it worth while he must climb through the doorway from the passage and scramble, cat-like, along the tiles. Mounting to the top of the tower, north of the octagon, the said visitor will find himself upon another " roof," of boards ; the octagon itself being roofed with lead ! BEVERSTON CASTLE. 67 Both, however, afford delightful resting-places from whence to view the surrounding country, and form a favourite resort of the inmates and guests of the pleasant old homestead, nestling in its bower of greenery far down helow. The present tenant of the castle is Mr. James Garlick, a typical Gloucestershire farmer, with his hearty greeting and genial hospitality. Besides the base of the circular tower, discovered in 1873, in tne rec tory garden (the ancient rectory stood where the school-house now stands), " there were found," says Blunt, " under the lawn, opposite the west face of the great tower and 3 7 feet distant, some large chamfered stones of a gateway, relics which seem to show that the castle formerly extended much farther." Probably not the castle itself, but the various farm buildings, workshops, and other offices, always to be found grouped round a mediasval castle. Indeed, two barns of handsome fourteenth century work, still exist within the outer area ; one known as the " Pilgrims' Barn." The remains of tower and gateway doubtless formed part of the fortified wall, which, with the outer moat, some 100 yards of which may still be traced bordering the present tennis-lawn, guarded the outer court. The inner court must have been small, the whole area of the castle within the moat being only some 2,235 square yards. The old church, which closely adjoins the castle, 68 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. is interesting, some parts of it dating back to the days of Maurice de Gaunt. Perhaps even to still earlier times, as in 1 170 the "living of Beverston" was held by Maurice's uncle, Henry, fifth son of Robert Fitzhardinge, one of the greatest pluralists of that or any other age. Besides being Treasurer of Normandy and Archdeacon of Exeter, he was rector of all the parishes in the Hundred of Berkeley ! Most probably his only con- nection with most of them consisted in pocketing the fees, the duties being relegated to curates a time- honoured custom by no means obsolete. In 1280 the advowson was made over to the Abbey of Gloucester, and, at the suppression, was transferred to the Crown. The remains of Maurice de Gaunt's structure still existing are the transitional Norman pillars and door- way beneath the porch ; the remainder is fourteenth century (and later), Lord Berkeley having almost rebuilt the church when he built the castle the windows in chapel and chancel are exactly alike. The walls were formerly adorned with paintings, one of St. Christopher, similar to that at Wotton ; others of the Resurrection, Last Judgment, &c. ; they are now hidden beneath a thick coat of Roman cement. The parish registers, which date back to 1565, contain many interesting entries, chief among them being those that relate to the families of "Shakespeare " and " Hathaway." They were contemporary residents in the neighbourhood, and from this circumstance and many corroborative ones which are worth detailing, are BE VERS TON CA S TLE. 69 believed to have been relatives of the poet and his wife. In the register for 1619 (four years after William Shakespeare's death) there is an entry of the baptism of " Edward Shakespurre, the sonne of John Shakespurre and Margery, his wife." The churchwarden's register of Dursley, near by, shows that one, " John Shakespeare, a mason, lived in Dursley in 1704, and down to 1739: " Thomas Shakespeare had a ft seat place " assigned to him in 1739; while a "Betty Shakespeare," having evidently fallen upon evil days, received " poors' money" from 1747 to 1754. Some of the family still exist in the adjoining parish of Newington Bagpath, and claim kindred with the poet ; while a pathway in the woods near Dursley is known as " Shakespeare's Walk." The name of Hathaway frequently appears in the Beverston registers, and is still borne by farmers in the neighbourhood. Further proof of Shakespeare's connection with the place is to be found in his works themselves, several passages being evidently written by one familiar with the scenery. As, for instance, the following from Richard II., act iii., scene 3, "The Wilds of Gloucester- shire," in which Bolingbroke, on his way from Ravens- purg to Berkeley, asks Northumberland " How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley, now ? North. I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire. These high, wild hills and rough, uneven ways Draw out our way and make it wearisome. But I bethink me that a weary way 70 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. From Ravenspurg to Cotsvvold will be found In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company." Enter to them Harry Percy, whom Northumberland addresses " How far is it to Berkeley, and what stir Keeps good old York there with his men of war ? Hotspur. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees." This is almost exactly descriptive of the scene as still beheld from the vicinity of Dursley ; and no less correct are the poet's allusions to the inhabitants. In the second part of " Henry V.," act v., scene i, "Glou- cestershire," Davey says to Justice Shallow " I beseech you, sir, To countenance Wm. Visor, of Woncot, against Clement Perkis on the Hill." K^ J&,.?\.~, M' Z. A&*' ' " Woncot," as Blunt points out, " is the common provincial rendering of * Woodmancote/ * Visor ' the undoubted ancestor of an ancient Dursley family of Vizards ; while on Stinchcombe Hill, generally called f The Hill/ is the site of a house once occupied by the family of Purchase or Perkis." I am aware that there are other " Woncots " claiming to be the village .referred to, notably the one near Stratford ; but the preponderance of evidence appears to be decidedly in favour of the Gloucestershire one ; and that Shakespeare was well acquainted with the BEVERSTON CASTLE. 71 neighbourhood admits of little doubt. Whether, as has been suggested, he spent among friends there the unaccounted-for interval between his removal from Warwickshire and his appearance in London, I leave for more experienced Shakespearian scholars to deter- mine. CHAPTER III. RODWAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. EXCEPT to the geologist, the deep cutting of Pennant stone in which, some five miles north-east of Bristol lies Mangotsfield station, has little of interest. But leave the station, and, climbing the winding road on the left to the stretch of furzy heath that clothes Rodway Hill, look straight ahead. On the further edge of the common, with its low, square windows facing the mid-day sun, stands an old stone house, which to those who know the signs, and take delight in these ancient dwelling-places of our land, promises sufficient interest to convince the sceptic and well repay the toilsome climb. Nor is the interest lessened when diligent inquiry into its chequered history shows it to have been connected with names well known in local, some in national, history ; although it is not connected, as tradition and Braine's " History of Kingswood " would have us believe, with the unfortunate Anne Boleync. ROD WA Y MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 73 Originally, as that same history states, Mangotsfield formed three distinct manors Rudgway, since Eliza- beth in the possession of the Smyths of Long Ashton ; Rodeway Hill ; and Mangotsfield proper, in very early times belonging respectively to the De Putots and the Blounts of Bitton. In 1231 William de Putot, or Pycot, Sheriff of Gloucester, Warden of the Sea Coasts, &c., died, seized of Rodway Manor, where he had evidently resided, as it is stated that he " built a chapel in his house at Mangotsfield and had a special grant of a free chantry in it " ; also that he c< planted a vine- yard " there, i4th Henry III. David le Blount married his daughter and heiress, thus becoming possessed of the manor, in addition to his own share of half of the Manor of Bitton, the two estates being for generations subsequently held together. After the succession of several heirs, the property came to Edward Blount, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Seymour. Their arms are still impaled over the church porch. An ancient Berkeley MS. in the Herald's College says that, " the Blounts built the house on Rodway Hill, as, until then, there had been only one house in common to both manors" ; but, from the fact that there is no trace or tradition of any manorial residence, other than Rodway, having ever existed on the estate, it is most probable that the Blounts rebuilt De Putot's house, or built anew on that site. Be this as it may, the oldest parts of the present structure are sufficiently 74 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. venerable, for we read of its having been " much repaired" in 1520, by its then owner, Sir Thomas Berkeley ! The Blounts retained possession of Man- gotsfield until 1477, when Sir Edward Blount, a descendant of the Edward who married Margaret Seymour, died, and his daughter and heiress married Lord Hussey, of Sleaford ; whose son, Sir William, aliened the manors of Mangotsfield and Bitton to Robert Dormer, of the old baronial family of that name, who in his turn sold them to (Lord) Maurice Berkeley, 1520. To these various transfers Camden thus bears witness : " At Mangotsfield was an old manor place sometime belonging to the Blounts, since to Hussey, then by purchase or exchange to the Berkeleys." The ancient badges of the latter family mermaid and lion rampant still adorn the building, silently testifying to their former occupation. With the Berkeleys it remained until 1612, Sir Thomas Berkeley, brother and successor to Maurice, making it his home, as also did his son Maurice. In order to explain why Lord Maurice bought Mangotsfield and Bitton, with other lands adjoining, and why he and his successors lived at Yate and Mangotsfield instead of in their ancestral home near by, it will be necessary to go back to the latter part of the fourteenth century, when William, Marquis of Berkeley, reigned at Berkeley Castle, and over many fair lands and manors beside. Having no children to survive him, his estates ROD WAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 77 would, in the natural course of things, have passed to his brother Maurice, the fifth of that name ; but Maurice, so runs the story, had given mortal offence to the lordly old autocrat by marrying Isabel, the widowed daughter of Philip Mead, a wealthy alderman (several times mayor) of Bristol. Isabel was an excellent and capable lady, who made a devoted wife, and, moreover, brought her lord much property ; but although of a good old family, there was no real " blue " blood in her veins, and therefore she was no fitting match, so thought the Marquis, for a Berkeley. To mark his displeasure, he left Berkeley Castle and " much land " to his royal master, Henry VII., and his heirs male ; failing whom it was to revert to the Berkeleys ; by which time the plebeian strain would have become so attenuated as not to materially affect his lordship's noble line ! Doubtless there was some truth in the story, but a far more cogent reason for this unjust and wanton alienation of the family property lay in the overweening pride and personal ambition of Lord William. He willed away his estates to the king in order to secure honours and title equal to those possessed by his ancient enemies Salisbury and Warwick. And little it all availed him, for he died un- mourned and in debt, having borrowed 300 nobles of his secretary, William Moore, in addition to " 70 shillings wages " which were owing. In his will he left directions that these amounts should be paid before 78 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. other sums ; and his disinherited successor (a man of a very different calibre) paid them accordingly. Upon his death, then (1491), when Maurice would otherwise have succeeded to the title and estates, he found himself, although not exactly " lord of a barren heritage," for he had property in his own right, besides that which his wife brought him still, cut off from much which before had gone with the title, and deprived of the castled home of his ancestors. A deprivation all the more unjust when it is remembered that he helped Lord William in the battle of Nibley Green ; by which he not only risked his life, but became outlawed for several years. He did not, however, sit down quietly under the loss, but by numerous suits at law, and persistent assertions of his claims, succeeded in gaining possession of several of the alienated estates, Lord William, in his haste to dispose of them, having neglected to examine their titles. "Lord" Maurice, as he was styled by courtesy, made his home at Thornbury, where a considerable part of his property lay, employing such time as he could spare from the law courts in looking after his estates and in educating and training his children (three sons and a daughter) ; in which latter occupa- tion the Lady Isabel ably shared, to judge by the characters they developed and the strong family affection which appears to have existed between them. Indeed, of Maurice and his wife it is chronicled that, "the longer they lived the more they loved." ROD IV A Y MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 79 Lord Maurice died 1506, and was buried, as was his wife, in the church of the Augustine Friars, London, in the neighbourhood of which, as well as in other parts of the City, the Berkeleys owned con- siderable property. He was succeeded by his son Maurice, a kindly-natured man, with a strong sense of justice, and of considerable business faculty, judging from the ability with which he carried on the various suits commenced by his father for the recovery of the property. He also, when at home, looked well to the ways of his household ; himself auditing and checking his steward's accounts every Saturday books still in Berkeley Castle. Not content, however, with endeavouring to recover the lost estates, he determined meanwhile to possess himself of others, and re-establish the prestige of the family in their native county, for which he seems to have had a great love. He accord- ingly sold several of his more distant manors, among them that of Wing, in Bucks, and with the money purchased Bitton, Mangotsfield, Hannem, Aylington, and part of Henbury near to Yate. The latter manor he was at the time holding on a short lease ; now, however, he took a new and much longer lease from Lord Daubeny, to whom the property had just been granted, and in 1518 began to build a " faire house" there, where he resided when in England or not attending on the " king's person." Mangotsfield Lord Maurice assigned to Sir Thomas Berkeley, his brother and heir (he having no son to inherit), giving him 8o SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. materials from Yate to repair and adorn the old house of Rodway for his residence. This Sir Thomas, who, on the death of Maurice in 1523, succeeded to the estates, distinguished himself at the battle of Flodden, and for his services was knighted on the field by the Earl of Surrey. His first wife was Alienor, the widowed daughter of Sir Marmaduke Constable, of Yorkshire, and for some years he resided at Hovingdon, in that county, where two sons and two daughters were born to him. Returning to Gloucestershire, of which he was made High Sheriff, he took up his abode at Mangotsfield, where, except for periodical migrations to Yate, after his accession to the property on the death of Lord Maurice, he continued to reside. The Yate house was occupied by the widowed Katherine until her death two years after her husband. And if any one is curious as to the inner furnishing of these ancient mansions, he can be gratified ; for, in compliance with Lord Maurice's will, the furniture at Yate was equally divided between his widow and his successor, in trust for the latter's son, Thomas. The following list of Thomas's share, which was brought to Mangots- field, is preserved in the Berkeley archives : " A trussing bed (probably a bedstead which could be "trussed" or folded up and used as a packing-case), and tester of cloth of gold ; divers pieces of arras, embroidered with gold ; divers cushions of gold, embroidered with ramping lyons of silver ; a shaving RODWA Y MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 81 basin of silver weighing three score ounces ; candle- sticks with their prickets and snuffers of silver, of thirty ounces ; two great flagons of silver ; two potts of silver parcell guilt ; a silver chafing dish ; two great salts of silver, with covers double guilt ; two goblets of silver, with covers parcell guilt ; a great goblet of silver, double guilt, with an hind upon the cover ; and three flatt bowles with covers parcell guilt, &c." A goodly list, supplemented by a few other valuables, presumably for the more personal use of the younger Thomas and his lady ; to wit : " A chain of gold, with a cross, containing 324 links, and a hook of gold ; a gown of russet velvet, furred with martens ; one rich coat of tinsel, one plagard (query ' placket,' woman's pocket), and forestocks of cloth of gold raysed ; and a roll of parchment of his father's pedigree " ! Notwithstanding Sir Thomas's exploits on the field of battle, his tastes seem to have been more peaceful than warlike ; for upon settling down again in Glouces- tershire he devoted himself almost entirely to a country life. Besides repairing and embellishing his house at Rodway, he rebuilt the mill in the valley below, and by diverting Bitton brook, made Charnell's Pool, to secure a constant supply of water. But his chier delight seems to have been in his farm, more especially his sheep. A veritable " Cotswold shepherd," he looked after his flocks himself, causing them to summer in one place and winter in another, according to where he could obtain the best and cheapest pasturage. Once 6 82 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. he had taken them as far afield as the " Warthe " Slimbridge Wharf, a piece of rich pasture land near the Avon, then part of the Crown property and had erected a comfortable sheep-cote ; but upon finding that the land was reserved for those only who lived near to it, he at once took down the cote and removed his flock. He kept a book in his own handwriting of all receipts and payments, and sold his own wool, "usually for 123. and 8d. the todd." So that we may picture him, with his tall figure, erect and spare, moving among the wool staplers and cloth merchants of the neighbouring town of Thornbury (then a populous market town, with extensive woollen mills), exhibiting his samples and making his bargains with as keen a zest as the veriest yeoman present, yet with a fairness and a courtesy which marked him for the honourable, high-born gentleman he was. Like his brother, he personally supervised the expenditure of his household, which was on a scale at once careful and generous witness his charge to his steward, a charge worthy to be written in letters of gold by every head of a household. "Let nothing," he says, " be spent which may honestly be spared, and nothing spared which may honestly be spent." After he became a baron and great " housekeeper " at Yate, he observed the same order, keeping with his own hand all receipts. But Sir Thomas had other beside mere personal matters claiming his attention. For some years, as has RODWAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 83 been said, he was High Sheriff of the County, and upon the death of his younger brother, James, he obtained of the king the Constableship of Berkeley Castle, and Rangership of Kingswood Forest, with the Severn fishing, &c., these having been previously held by James. An upright, honest, kindly man was this sixth Thomas, Baron Berkeley ; courteous and gentle, yet hating meanness and duplicity, he was honoured and respected throughout the county. Devout also, ac- cording to the religious fashion of those times ; for early in his married life we find him and his wife, Alienor, "going on pilgrimage to visit divers shrines," where they gave sums of money for masses for souls and remission of sins, particulars of which were duly set forth in deeds, like any other business transaction. By one of these deeds Sir Thomas covenanted to pay the "Fryars Mynors of Gloucester " ^4 a year for so many prayers, masses, &c., for souls, for himself and relatives, to be said four days a week. On the back of this deed written by a different hand and at a later date, is the following quaint endorsement : " If the clergy could sell and make perfect sale of the remission of sins, with assurance of the life to come for money, they would soon have more coin than the King ; and ^4 was too little for all those prayers ; but casual ware is sold cheap. God pardon us all ! " Lord Thomas's wife, Alienor, died two years after his accession, and was buried with great state in St. Augustine's Abbey, now the cathedral church of 84 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. Bristol. He subsequently married Cicely, the widow of Sir R. Rowdon, but did not long survive, and " as he had lived like a noble, honest lord, so he died like a saint." Early in 1532 he made his will, and set his house in order ; but the final summons did not come until the following January. On the nth of that month he " took to his chamber in his house at Mangotsfield, revised his will and ordered his tomb and funeral ; then, summoning around him the Abbots of Bristol and Kingswood, the Dean of Westbury, and Doctors and Priors of the Black Friars, Bristol, in the midst of their prayers and blessings, he closed up his eyes from further sight of the transactions of this life," and departed, January 22, 1533. In compliance with the peculiar directions in his will, his body was first buried in Mangotsfield Church, beneath the spot in the chancel where he used to kneel ; then, within three months, was removed to St. Augus- tine's Abbey, where the account says : "He Jyeth under a fair tombe with his first wife, Alienor, upon which he appointed ,40 to be bestowed, which was accordingly done." No trace of this tomb is now to be found, but it was probably placed in the chapel erected by his brother, Lord Maurice. Among his bequests are % a year for ten years to his godson, Thos. Harcourt, priest, to sing and pray for his soul ; a like sum to buy vestments for the church, and 100 marks towards building the high altar at St. Augustine's. And yet not even a memory of him, or of the still ROD WA Y MANOR, MANGO TSFIELD. 85 greater benefactor, Maurice, now lingers around the spot ! The Berkeley tombs shown in the cathedral are all of an earlier date. He left^io for amendment of Mangotsfield roads, and ^20 towards repairing Keynsham bridge in a neighbouring parish, while his armour and Parliamentary robes went to his eldest son. Mangotsfield itself, together with other property, he seems to have bequeathed to his second son, Maurice, but, as will be seen, the latter did not benefit much by the bequest. His widow, Cicely, removed to Bristol, where she died and was buried, it is said, in Temple Church. From her long residence in the city she was called " My Lady Cicely, of Bristol." Thomas, the son and successor of Thomas, Baron Berkeley, had been educated by his uncle, Sir Maurice, at St. Omar, near Calais, and from his learning and ability was called " The Lawyer." His first wife was Mary, daughter of Lord Hastings, who brought him a modest portion, but neither lands nor family, and died six weeks after his father. In the following month, April, he married Anne Savage (some write Saville), of Frod- sham, Cheshire ; of whom Stowe and others say, that " on 25th of January, 1533, she bore the train of Anne Boleyne at her secret marriage with Henry VIII., and was herself shortly afterwards married to Lord Berkeley, which marriage seems to have been contrived by the king and queen, or one of them." A statement not at all improbable, although no particulars are given as to 86 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. where or how the marriage was brought about, for the Lady Anne had been Anne Boleyne's principal attendant for years ; and that Henry shared his wife's goodwill to her is evident from his standing sponsor to her infant son, Henry, Lord Berkeley. Although succeeding to considerable landed property, Lord Thomas seems to have had little ready money. His income during the eight years of his first marriage was under 100 ; 50 having been kept back for the first three years towards the rebuilding of Rodway. He died at Stone in Kent in the autumn of the following year ; the widowed Lady Anne returning from Stone, with her nine-months'-old baby, to Bristol, where she resided for a short time at " St. Augustine's Green," now-" College Green." From thence she went to Yate ; where, on the 26th of November following, she gave birth to a son, Lord Henry, to whom were ultimately restored the estates and honours of Berkeley. Lady Anne was a managing, capable woman of great force of character, but haughty and overbearing to a degree. As may be imagined, such a woman would scarcely prove a peacemaker in the family. Nor did she ; for, hardly had she entered it when she stirred up her husband to dispute his brother's title to Mangots- field, although he, Lord Thomas, had himself approved of the will, as, also, had the executors. The contention was that only the house at Rodway, with the park and conigre (rabbit-warren) had been left to Maurice, the ROD IV AY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 87 manor being Lord Thomas's ; the latter asserting in support of his claim, that his father " builded upon Mangotsfield house with the goods, knots, trayles, carved work, and other ornaments, fetched from his house at Yate, which his uncle, Lord Maurice, gave him, value 200 marks, a sign that he whose goods had adorned it would have it." That besides, he had kept back ^50 of his, Thomas's, marriage portion for three years towards the building of it a proof he meant him to have it. Also that it adjoined the manor of Bitton, and that the two had always gone together ; also that the new mill which his father had " builded from the ground," and Charnell's pool, with the fish therein, which his brother had destroyed, were his because Charnell's hill was part of Bitton, and Bitton brook had been diverted to make the pool. Where the truth lay between them it is impossible now to tell ; especially as, in spite of the old lord's care concerning his will, all does not seem to have been quite in order. Cicely, his second wife (whose stepdaughter, Frances Rowdon, Maurice had married) acknowledging that she had kept the Seal of Arms and Signet five days after her lord's death, and herself sealed two parts of the said will ! For whichever Mangotsfield was intended, however, Anne seems ulti- mately to have got possession of it, leaving Maurice the " house, park, and conigre." Fortunately for him he had married an heiress, or he would have fared badly, as Lady Anne subsequently contrived to despoil 88 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. him of the other parts of his inheritance. Not that he submitted patiently to being thus fleeced : there was war to the knife between them all the days of his life. Anne's first move was to incite some of the Berkeleys' (descendants of the younger branches) to take possession of the mill and Charnell's pool, that great bone of contention ; which they did ; but Maurice had them indicted and fined. On the death of her husband, Anne made one of these Berkeley's her receiver, surveyor, &c., which naturally incensed Maurice ; and in retaliation he, in conjunction with Sir Nicholas Poyntz, who had married his sister Jone, and who seems to have had no greater liking for his disputatious sister-in-law than had Maurice Giles Poyntz, his brother, and their various friends and followers, made several raids upon the deer park at Yate, of which more anon. In the following spring, hostilities seemed to have been again renewed ; the battle this time returning to the much-contested mill and pool ; the former being demolished, and the wall of the latter pulled down. Anne promptly instituted a suit in Star Chamber ; but upon sending her man to serve the process, he was soundly thrashed, which caused a new suit. Sir Nicholas Poyntz, who seems to have been the leading spirit in this raid, alleged in his defence that Charnell's pool belonged as much to him as to Anne ; Lord Thomas having stopped the watercourse between Barton (his manor) and Bitton, and overflowed an RODWAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 89 acre of his ground to make it ! And at last Anne, unable to circumvent them, fled for succour to her old master, Henry VIII. It was some years after he had beheaded his wife, but he seems to have still regarded her former maid of honour with favour ; for he granted her a commission under the great seal, and made her one of the Commissioners ! Whereupon she came to Gloucester, impanelled a jury, heard evidence, and (naturally) found Sir Nicholas, Maurice, and their followers guilty of riot and disorder, and fined them. For which exploit the common people used to call her " Justice of the Peace ! " There was no real " peace," however, until Maurice and Poyntz died Poyntz in 1556, Maurice about a year before. He was buried in Temple Church, although no record of his interment exists, the registers not dating back so far by some ten years, neither is any reason assigned for his burial there (unless it was in order to be near his stepmother, who had always stood his friend) ; the whole of the parish, however, from Temple ditch to the bed of the river, once belonged to his ancestors, and was presented by them to the Knights Templars. Anne survived many years, living either in London, or, which she much preferred, at Yate, Mangotsfield, or Callowden, now Caludon, in Warwickshire ; for she loved country life, and, rising early, winter and summer, would make the round of her gardens, stables, poultry yard, &c., personally directing and supervising a marked contrast to her son's wife, 90 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. Lady Katherine, daughter of the Earl of Surrey ; a beautiful but haughty and extravagant damsel, who hated the country except for its sports, and lived mostly for pleasure, and of whom her mother- in-law would often avow, " This gay girle will beggar my son Henry ! " a prophecy which came perilously near proving true. When in London Anne lived at the great house of the Bishop of Bangor in Shoe Lane (a very different locality then from now) which she held on lease. In 1612, the 9th of James, Henry, Lord Berkeley, grandson of Thomas, impoverished by his gay life and numerous lawsuits, dismembered Mangotsfield, which, at Maurice's death, had reverted to him, and sold the manor of Rodway to Philip Langley, Esq. (he had married Katherine, a descendant of the Berkeley's), and Mary his mother, and their heirs, for ,2,225. A large sum in those days, but even so early Mangotsfield yielded a rich store of stone and minerals. In 1663 it was again sold to John Meredith, who repaired and restored the house, and planted a large vineyard on sheltered slopes to the south-west. Atykins, in his history, ridicules the idea of vine- yards having existed in Gloucestershire, saying the climate was too cold to admit of grapes ripening in the open, and that the term " vineyard " simply signified a " pear or apple orchard ! " Which is sheer non- sense. Many old writers testify to the extensive cultivation of the vine, and to the excellency of the CARVED MANTELPIECE, RODWAY MANOR. RODWA Y MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 93 wine produced, Speed making special mention of the Gloucestershire vineyards. Even at this date grapes, in favourable situations, ripen well in the open. Covering the whole front of the house where the present writer was born, in the north-east corner of the county, was a vine which bore delicious grapes ; also one near to Banbury, in Oxfordshire ; and several in Warwickshire. While who has not heard of the Marquis of Bute's vineyard at Castle Coch, near Cardiff, from which wine has been made regularly in favourable seasons for several years past? Jubilee year produced a " vintage " of 3,600 bottles of high quality, while the exceptionally hot season of 1893 yielded a far greater crop, 1 2,000 bottles being made, value ^3 a dozen. See Gardener s Magazine ', Septem- ber 20, 1894. How the Mangotsfield vineyard answered is not known, and no traces of it remain, except the sunny- terraced slopes now covered with grass, and still called " The Vineyard." Its owner was one of the Mere- diths, of Rocks, Marshfield (an ancestor, John, once held that living). He married Elizabeth Basset ; their joint arms lion rampant, collared and chained, for Meredith, three escallop shells, ancient charge of the younger branch, for Basset (" Roll of Caerlaveroch ") being quartered upon a shield in the centre of a handsome carved mantelpiece in one of the rooms at Rodway. The Meredith family seems to have been of considerable standing, judging from several monu- 94 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. mental inscriptions in Mangotsfield Church, the small side chancel of which is claimed as their special burying- place, although tradition also ascribes it to the Blounts ; while a stone tomb therein, with recumbent effigy, is said to represent one of the Berkeleys, most probably Sir Thomas, whose body rested there previous to its removal to Bristol. From John Meredith, Rodway Manor descended to his son and grandson, the latter (William) selling it to Charles Bragg, Esq., who at that time also owned and lived at Cleeve Hill, now the residence of Lady Cave. He in his turn sold it to Edward Colston, great grand- son of a certain Alex. Read, who took the name of Colston. In 1779 the property was left as a jointure to the widow of Francis Colston, from whom it passed to Lord Middleton and Alec. Colston, who had married two sisters, co-heiresses of estates in Gloucestershire, and who re-sold it in the present century to Daniel Cave, Esq., who had also become possessed of Cleeve Hill. From him it descended to his son, the Right Hon. Sir Stephen Cave, G.C.B., Judge Advocate and Paymaster General ; and upon his death, in 1880, passed to Charles D. Cave, Esq., of the Old Bank, Bristol, with whom it still remains. The present tenant of the manor is Mrs. H. Young. The house, which is of three storeys, with a small wing at the east end, is so excellently kept that, except for the low square-cornered Tudor windows, with their armorial badges, and the shield of arms above the RODWA Y MANOR, MANGOTSFJELD. 95 porch, there is little to denote its age ; but within the signs are more conspicuous. The first object which strikes the eye upon entering is a good specimen of the staircase of the period, winding up to the top storey, its carved rails and balustrades black and polished with STAIRCASE, RODWAY MANOR. age. Beyond the staircase the floor slopes down to a long, low room, with deep embrasured window, and a buttery hatch (still used when required), communi- cating with the larder and kitchen. A hall runs to the back of the house, from which open other rooms 96 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. through old-fashioned doorways cut in walls 3 or 4 feet thick. The east wing is occupied by the drawing- room ; in which, reaching from floor to ceiling, is the carved mantelpiece bearing, among other devices, the Meredith and Basset arms. Upstairs are Jong passages, with cupboards and closets in the massive walls, and rooms leading out of each other after the bewildering and uncomfortable fashion of the time, whose doors, windows, and fireplaces all speak of the distant past, the most ancient door having its panels hollowed out instead of let in. Leaving the house by the back hall, with a glance up at the mermaid and lion ornamenting the ancient windows, we turn to the left into a small orchard from which a flight of broad stone steps conducts to a long, grassy terrace, with low battlemented walls, which commands a wide sweep of country : Kingswood, Lansdown, Bath, Kelston Round Hill, &c., on one side, and on the other, Downend, and away to the Welsh hills. Immediately beneath, in the valley, lie the " Vineyard," and " Charnells," the burying-place of those who fell in that ancient battle where Mane, the Saxon general, defeated the Britons, and which is commemorated in the local rhyme : "ByCharnocks Mane got his field, And shed his blood on Rode-away Hill ; They rode, some say, to Stand-fast gate, And fought their way to Bridge o' Yate." The finding of some bones and an ancient stone ROD WAY MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 97 coffin on the spot seem to verify the story. Part of the hill was once a stone quarry, but this has since been planted with trees, and along the foot of it a brook runs through the valley to the famous " Charnell's pool." An arched passage, now boarded up on the outer side, leads beneath the terrace to the narrow belt of firs which separates it from the common. Some portions of the walls, judging from the thick, gnarled stems of the ivy which covers them, must be very ancient. The appearance of the building upon this side, with the existence of a venerable but- tress of immense strength also suggest age, and seem to intimate that the house was once of greater extent, and probably communicated directly with the terrace. Tradition has endeavoured to associate this old house with three of the Queens of Henry VIII. ; viz., Anne Boleyne, Jane Seymour, and Catherine Parr though why, it would be difficult to tell. The latter lived some time at Sudely, in the neighbourhood, with her third husband, Lord Somerset ; died, and was buried in St. Mary's Chapel there ; and Jane Seymour was related to the Margaret who married Edmund Blount, but there is nothing to show that either she or Cathe- rine had any personal acquaintance with the place. Anne Boleyne, it is true, accompanied Henry VIII. when he came to Thornbury Castle ; where, because of the plague raging in Bristol, they were obliged to stay, instead of in the city, as designed. But although the royal couple may have honoured Anne's former maid 7 98 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. of honour, Lady Berkeley, with a visit at Yate Court (no record of any such event exists), the evidence is all against their having visited Rodway Manor ; Maurice, its then owner, being at deadly feud with his sister-in- law, who was moving heaven and earth to dispossess him of his inheritance. Moreover, the house itself would not have accommodated the royal party, as SHIELD OF ARMS OVER PORCH AT RODWAY MANOR. never, in its palmiest days, could it have ranked with the neighbouring mansions of Thornbury and Yate. Queen Anne's connection with the place seems to rest on the assumption that the armorial bearings above the porch are those of the Boleynes ; but this is an entirely erroneous idea, the " three bulls' heads," which has given rise to it, being (according to the College of Heralds) the charge of an old Somersetshire family of RODWA Y MANOR, MANGOTSFIELD. 99 Bull. The other charges on the shield are common to so many houses that it is impossible, at this distance of time, and when successive coats of paint have hidden the original tinctures, to pronounce authoritatively upon them ; except that they are not the Boleyne arms. Those were "a chevron gules between three bulls' heads " ; or " a lion passant between three bulls heads^ crest, bull ' s head " ; while the Rod way escutcheon bears four charges. On the first " 3 bulls' heads, caboshed " ; second, " 10 billets" ; third, "lion rampant" ; fourth, " 3 chevrons " ; crest, " an esquire's helmet " ; the whole encircled by foliage, motto defaced. Still, although it is impossible to decide to whom the coat as a whole belonged, the various charges (with the exception of the " bulls' heads ") were borne by families who, at various times, owned, or were con- nected with, the old house. The " lion rampant " was the charge of both Meredith and Berkeley ; the " 3 chevrons " of the De Clares, who intermarried with the Berkeleys ; while the " 10 billets" are still the arms of the Dormer family. The " bulls' heads," alas ! have, so far, eluded all attempts at association. To dispel, by the hard logic of fact, romantic and time-honoured fiction, is not a pleasant task ; but the writer of ' c history " has no choice. CHAPTER IV. YATE COURT. THIS ancient pile of crumbling ruins, sleeping peace- fully beneath its mantle of ivy in the fair vale of Gloucester, although perhaps better known locally than Beverston Castle, is still a terra incognita to the majority, even of those interested in such relics. The reason of this is twofold It lies remote from road or rail, Yate, three miles away, being the nearest station ; and it possesses neither the historic nor the architectural interest which have made the fame of its stately neighbours, Thornbury and Berkeley. Once, and once only, did the Court actually figure in history it was garrisoned by the Parliament in the Civil War. Even then, however, the glory of a siege was denied to it, for the Governor of Gloucester (Colonel Massey), fearing that Prince Rupert might swoop down from Cirencester in one of the sudden raids which he made more than once that winter, and exterminate the little force before succour could arrive, YATE COURT. 101 resolved on their recall. He accordingly marched to Kingscote, between Wotton and Beverston, with three hundred horse dragoons, intending to send a party to bring them off; but hearing that the Royalists were assembled in some force at Sodbury to the assistance of Colonel Gerrard against Yate House (an old house still standing on the road to Wickwar), he dropped quietly down thither the same night. His sudden appearance so scared the guard posted at the entrance of the little town that they took to their heels, leaving the invaders to march in ; this they did, " one by one because of the baracadoes," straight up to the main guard of forty-five horse ; who, being surprised in their turn, also took flight, their comrades in quarters escaping (such of them as were able) through the back streets of the town ! Securing their prisoners, the victorious troopers marched on to Yate and brought off the forlorn garrison. Not, however, before they had set fire to the " faire house " which had sheltered them, and reduced it to ruins, lest it should serve as a refuge for their enemies. If, however, the records of the old Court itself were more peaceful than warlike, those of some of its ancient owners were by no means so. The first possessor of whom we have any historic notice was Sir Ralph de Willington. He came of an ancient Derbyshire family John de Willington, at or immediately after the Conqueror, settling at Willington near to Repton. Nicholas de Willington, his son, was 102 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. contemporaneous with Robert, Abbot of Burton, in Stephen's reign (see Stafford Assize Rolls , Henry III.). From Dugdale's "Monasticon" (vol. ii. p. 280), it appears that he and his son Nicholas were liberal benefactors to the convent of Repton, bestowing upon it the manor and church of Willington. No witness to their liberality, in carved stone or monumental effigy, now, however, exists at Repton, for the following reason : In 1540 the site of Repingdon (Repton Abbey) was granted to Thomas Thacker, Esq., who purchased most of the furniture and stock ; of whom Fuller relates in his " Church History " that, " being alarmed by the news that Queen Mary had set up the abbeys again (and fearing how large a reach such a precedent might have) upon a Sunday (belike the better the day the better the deed), he called together the carpenters and masons of that county and plucked down in one day (church work is a cripple in going up, but rides post in coming down) a most beautiful church belonging thereunto, saying he would destroy the nest for fear the birds should build there again." In the eighteenth century the Thacker family having become much reduced, their only daughter and heiress bequeathed the estate to Sir Robert Burdett. The remains of the priory were afterwards converted into the schoolroom and offices of Repton School, the mansion being occupied by the head-master. But to return to the De Willingtons. Nicholas de Willington was succeeded by his brother Ralph, who YATE COURT. 103 served under Richard Cceur de Lion and was present at the siege of Acre. Returning from the Holy Land, he settled at Sandhurst, Gloucestershire ; building Willington Court there, and, in conjunction with his wife, Olympia, founded St. Mary's Chapel, now the Lady Chapel, Gloucester. In the 9th John he pur- chased the manor of Yate of Robert d'Everseide and 1230. SEAL OF SIR RALPH DE WILLINGTON. made it one of his residences; obtaining, in 1218, the grant of a weekly market there from which it is evident the place must then have been of some population. In the 8th of Henry III. he was Governor of Bristol Castle, having charge of the Princess Eleanor, sister of the unfortunate Arthur of Brittany, she having been imprisoned in that fortress 104 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. and Corfe Castle for forty weary years, lest she should intrigue for the crown to which she had a far better right than had either of the kings who kept her in confinement. She died at Bristol, 1240, and was first buried in St. James Church ; but a few months after- wards Henry III. ordered her body to be removed to Amesbury, some eight miles from Bristol. Sir Ralph was also Warden of the Forest and Chase of Rainham, and Governor of Devizes Castle in Wilts. He died about 1237 and was succeeded by his son Ralph, who married Joane, daughter and heiress of Sir William Champernowne of Umberleigh, Devon. Their son, another Ralph, styled by Risdon " a worthy warrior," whose marriage with the heiress of Sir Richard de Lonen, brought him large estates in Devon and Wilts, was Sheriff of the former county and Governor of the castles of Exeter and Berkeley. The latter castle had been seized by King John because the then Lord Berkeley (Robert) refused to accompany him in his French wars. His successor, Lord Thomas, was forced not only to see his neighbour, Sir Ralph, installed as keeper of his hereditary castle, but also to contribute liberally to his support while there. Henry III. ultimately restored Berkeley to its rightful owner. Sir Ralph was succeeded by his son John, who, in the nth of Edward I. had several grants of manors, and, in 1299, "licence to crenulate his manor house at Yate " (Parker's " Domes. Arch.," vol. iv. p. 404). Remains of this building still exist in the massive YATE COURT. 105 gateway of the court. In 1 3 1 1 he also received a grant of free warren in the manor of Yate. Little enjoyment, however, could he have had of his hunting or architecture ; for, accompanying Edward II. on his disastrous expedition into Scotland, he, and his brother Sir Henry (banneret), were taken GATEWAY OF JOHN DE WILLINGTON, YATE COURT. prisoners. They were ultimately released, but soon afterwards joining Lancaster's rebellion against the Dispensers, their lands were forfeited to the Crown, Sir Henry losing not only lands but life, his sentence being that he should be " drawn for his treason and hanged for his homicides;" which sentence was executed at Bristol, 1322. From the king's point of view he 106 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. fully deserved his fate, having, in that same year, attacked Gloucester, burned Bridgnorth, and fought the Royal troops at Burton-on- Trent, and at Borobridge, in which latter battle he was taken prisoner. Drayton, in his " Baron's Wars," thus refers to him "Nor, Wylington, will I applaud thy spirit. Your bayes must be your well-deserved blame, For your ill-actions quench my sacred flame." John, meanwhile, who had also engaged in several battles and in the burning of Bridgnorth, had obtained pardon and release by submitting to a fine of ^3,000 and to a perpetual rent-charge. On the accession of Edward III., however, he was restored to favour, and in the jrd of that reign was made a baron for helping to rescue the king from a sudden onslaught of the Scots. He was succeeded, says Sir Bernard Burke, by his son Ralph, who, serving the king faithfully in France and Scotland, was also summoned to Parliament, February 25, 1342. He married Alienor, daughter of John, ist Lord Mohun, of Dunster, Somerset ; but dying without issue, as did also his uncle and successor, Reginald, the estates passed to Henry, son of the Henry who was executed, and who had married Margaret de Freville, co-heiress of the Marmions of Tarn worth. On the death of Henry's son and successor, John, 1397, the main line became ex- YATE COURT. 107 tinct in the male descent. The two sisters of John, Elizabeth and Margaret, upon whom the property devolved, married into the families of Worth and Beaumont, whence, through heiresses, descend the Bassets (present owners of Umberleigh), as also the Baronet families of Chichester, and the Marquis of Donegal. A younger branch of the family, after remaining in Gloucestershire for three or four descents, settled in Warwickshire, at Barcheston and Hurley Hall, whose history will be given under the latter head. On the division of the property between the two heiresses, the Gloucestershire estates, including Yate Court and Manor, fell to Elizabeth Beaumont. Soon afterwards, however, they passed, by the influence of Sir Giles Daubeney, to John Basset, Esq., who, in return, left a considerable portion, including Yate, to Sir Giles ; and it was from his son, Lord Daubeney, that Lord Maurice, the second of the " disinherited " Berkeleys, obtained the manor and park on a lease. In the 9th Henry VIII. he began to build his house, incorporating with it the best portions of the ancient mansion of John de Willington, and retaining the enclosing moat. The house, we' are told, was built of " wood from Kings wood forest and stone from Haslebury quar," and it took three years in building. Like so many of these old moated mansions, it was built round an oval courtyard (of rather more than an acre in extent), and contained the usual living rooms, io8 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. facing inwards on the north and west, with offices, stables, bakery, &c. A strong wall stood within the moat, further defended by the portcullised gateway on the south, and a high, square tower on the north-east, probably occupied by the men-at-arms. Without the moat, on the gateway side, were the farmyard, -the orchard, gardens, &c., stretching round to the west ; while on the east were some large fishponds, now beds REMAINS OF SQUARE TOWER, YATE COURT. of hosier and reed. As no traces of a second wall or moat appear, it is probable that the outer buildings were enclosed by a high wooden palisade. Here Lord Maurice, when not engaged elsewhere, principally resided in considerable state and hospitality, being for some time High Sheriff of the county, Ranger of Pucklechurch Park, &c. Here also, in 1519, the magnificent but unfortunate Edward, Duke of Bucking- YATE COURT. 109 ham, who at that time was building his castle of Thorn- bury, paid him a visit, although there was no great love on either side, as is evidenced by some strong language between them recorded in the Berkeley Chronicles. Lord Maurice was held in great honour by the neighbouring abbots, who never granted a lease to their tenants without consulting him, and " always on his visits received him with procession, and censing and other rights as became a founder." But, although a great lord, he, like his ancestors, kept a personal eye upon all his accounts, checking the weekly books of his bailiffs and household stewards, &c., every Saturday. From these books, still kept in Berkeley Castle, can be seen, by the extra charges, when visitors were staying at the Court the Duke of Buckingham's visit, for instance, being duly chronicled. Maurice married Katherine, daughter of Sir William Berkeley, of Stoke Gifford, but had no family, and tiring of the comparative monotony of country life, he, with his " wife's liking," accepted the governorship of the town of Calais, offered him by Henry VIII. This was not his first visit to France ; he had gone there some years before in attendance upon Henry's sister, the Princess Mary. At Calais he remained until his death, in 1523, and was buried in St. Nicholas Church in that town. He left a large sum of money towards the building of the church and monastery of St. Augustine's, Bristol, and intended to have been buried in the chapel he had erected there, but his death abroad 1 10 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. prevented it. Yate was also the usual " standing house " of Lady Berkeley during her lord's absence, and when he died at Calais she continued to reside there until her own death two years afterwards, being interred in the north chancel of Yate Church ; that pertaining to the lords of Yate, as the south chancel did to those of Stanshawe. The next Lord Berkeley was Thomas 5th, of Mangotsfield, who was also a great housekeeper at Yate, his two daughters being married from there with much state : Miriell, the eldest, 1527, to Robert Throckmorton, Esq., of Warwickshire ; her marriage portion being 750 marks, with lands in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and her wedding hose and shoes costing 22d. ! She was a lady of small stature, lived long and virtuously, had five children, but lived to see 220 direct descendants. Jone, the younger daughter, was married the year following on " Midsomer-day at her father's house at Yate " to Sir Nicholas Poyntz ; the agreement being that if he died before the ceremony, she was to marry his brother, Giles Poyntz ; their clothes and wedding expenses to be equally shared by the respective fathers. They had nine children, the youngest of whom, Frances, married Sir John Berkeley, the last of the Berkeleys of Beverston. Lord Maurice had left the lease of Yate, eighty years after his wife's death, to Lord Thomas's son Thomas, dividing the plate and goods contained therein equally between them. Young Thomas, however, never seems YATE COURT. 111 to have had a separate establishment there. He had married a comparatively poor wife, and ready money was scarce in the family at that time. His second wife, the renowned " Lady Anne," who figures so forcibly in these chronicles, was a quick-witted brunette, of middle height and comely appearance ; clever, capable, fruitful in resource, with a masculine spirit and imperious will, yet capable of sincere friendship and passionate affec- tion. Indeed, to her children she was culpably in- dulgent, never permitting them out of her sight, nor insisting upon their education, so that they grew up almost destitute of even the rudiments of knowledge. This foolish spoiling had doubtless not a little to do with the unhappy married life of her daughter Elizabeth, one of the " fairest ladies of King Edward's Court," who separated from her husband, the Earl of Ormond, about a year after their marriage, because " they could not agree." Anne was, and continued till her death, a staunch Roman Catholic, on which account she became high in favour with Queen Mary. Lord Thomas, on his accession, finding himself burdened with his own debts and heavy payments under his father's will, determined, like an honest man, not to keep up the great house at Yate, but to live simply and retrench. He therefore bargained with the Countess of Wilshyre, whose husband had succeeded Lord Maurice Berkeley as " Controller of the town and marches of Calais," to lodge at Stone Place, in Kent ; himself, his wife, baby daughter Elizabeth (named 112 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. probably after the little Princess Elizabeth), two gentlemen, and six men, at " 255. 40!. a week for all ! " And so in June, 1534, he set out from Yate to London, and from thence to Stone, arriving September I5th. A few days afterwards he was taken ill from eating too much fruit ; and although his wife, who was passionately attached to him, despatched a messenger to London in all haste for a skilful physician, he died on the 22nd, aged twenty-nine, having been lord scarcely two years. He was buried at Stone, simply and unostentatiously, as he had lived, judging from the following account of the funeral expenses : u For making of his chest, I2d. (Coffins in those days were often literally " chests," furnished with Jock and key !) " For half-hundred of boards, I4d. " For 4 bushells of bran to lay within his chest, I2d. " For winding sheet, 2od." This lord also obtained a grant of the Constableship of Berkeley Castle and Rangership of Kingswood Forest, the latter of which was held by Sir Nicholas Poyntz during the minority of Lord Henry Berkeley, Henry purchasing it from him in the reign of Mary. In the November following her husband's death, Lady Anne, as we have seen, came back to Yate to become the mother of a son, Lord Henry, and it was while still confined to her chamber that her brother-in- law, Maurice Berkeley of Mangotsfield, made the raid on her deer-park referred to in the last chapter. One YATE COURT. 113 winter's night Sir Maurice and his friends, Nicholas and Giles Poyntz, with their servants, in revenge for Anne's raid on Charnell's mill and pool, broke into the park at Yate, and, having chased and slain the deer, approached the house, with the intention, it is said, of setting fire to a large hayrick standing within a high pale at the stable end adjoining the house, in the hope (so greatly had Lady Anne made herself hated) that the fire might " catch the house and burn the lady with her weirish boy in the midst of it. ' And then, Maurice,' quoth Giles Poyntz, ' thou shalt be heire, and wee have an end of all our suites ! ' Fortunately for Anne, how- ever, some poachers happened to be in the park the same night, also bent upon " slaying of the deer," who getting wind of Maurice's company, took them for other poachers, and not desiring to come into contact with those whom they thought might be better armed than themselves, sought refuge under the hayrick. Standing thus, close crouched, they overheard the plan for firing the rick, and fearing to be burned or informed against, they fled ; while Maurice's party, taking them for Anne's servants, and fearing, in their turn, to be discovered and taken, fled also in another direction ! But the " poachers peached," and Anne instituted a suit in Star Chamber, which resulted in the marauders being convicted and fined. This story, while suggesting the site of the principal sleeping apartments, suggests also the query, Did the moat exist all round at that date, or was it filled in, as 8 1 14 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. at present, on the gateway side where the farmyard was? If not, one could hardly understand a fire spreading across water of such a width with sufficient force to burn strong stone buildings. It must have been somewhere about this time that the legal skirmish took place between Anne and the Dean of Westbury, detailed by that ecclesiastic in a pitiful letter to Lord Cromwell. The Dean relates how upon a certain Michaelmas Day he was riding towards Gloucester, to " serve his Majestic at the Quarter Cessions," when he found at the " Church Howse in the parish of Yate, where the Lady Anne Berkeley dwelleth, divers evyle disposed persons, to the number of xiiij, playing at the unlawful and forbidden game of tennes at Divine service tyme in the mornynge, who at his comynge toward them avoided and fledde away." Not so quickly, however, but that he contrived to ascertain some of their names, intending at the " Cessions " to have them punished. But he reckoned without his host, for upon, at length, reaching Gloucester, he found the Lady Anne had arrived before him, and availing herself of the commission granted by her royal master, had empanelled a common jury of her servants and retainers. Upon discovering this, the Dean discreetly decided to defer the matter until the coming of the justices of the assize ; which counter- check so angered Anne that she set upon him with " many slanderous and opprobrious words in the pre- sence of divers gentlemen," wishing the tennis players YATE COURT. 115 had " beaten him, and that it should have been done if she had known of his coming," further threatening that she would " sytte upon his skyrts." Which threat she promptly carried out by causing the Dean, his friends and servants, to be wrongfully indicted, for that he and Sir Nicholas Poyntz had ordered a certain Sir William Norton, one of her priests (the clergy were called "Sir" instead of "Reverend" in those days) to be attached for keeping certain prohibited books sup- porting the claims of Rome ; but whom she had so managed to shield that, in spite of undeniable evidence, no conviction could be obtained. All this the Dean set forth in pitiful terms (see Ellis's " Original Letters ") ; but whether he obtained redress or no does not appear. Our old chronicler, Smyth, had no sympathy with the rigid Sabbatarian notions which were coming into vogue. He says, " I like well to walk in somertime on Sundaies after evening prayers with my wife to Hodley Green, and there to behold my neighbours children and servants with mine owne to runne at barley-breakes, dance in the ring, and such like sports, a laudable recreation which hath no oppugners save way-ward dispositions and men of too sterne a judge- ment." Lady Anne and her children seem to have spent much of their time at Yate, and it was from there that her beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, set out for Bristol on her way to Ireland to join her husband, the Earl of ii6 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. Ormond. It was to Yate that Queen Mary sent, com- manding Lord Henry, then only nineteen, to arm five hundred of his trusty followers, and bring them to her assistance in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt. The young lord promptly gathered his retainers from far and near, pledging his family plate to furnish the necessary equipment. But ere they had well set out on their journey, tidings came that they would not be needed, for that Wyatt, seeing his cause desperate, had given himself up in the streets of London to Sir Maurice Berkeley probably Sir Maurice Berkeley of Bruton, who was standard-bearer to Henry VIII. , Edward VI., and Elizabeth. When scarce twenty, Lord Henry married Katherine Howard, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Earl of Surrey, a beautiful damsel, as fond of show and gaiety as Henry himself. The first part of their married life they spent in one long round of amusements, going up and down between Yate, Mangotsfield, Caludon, and London, hawking as they went, " making eight days at least, and as many back again, and seldom attended by less than 150 livery servants." A goodly show, clothed in summer in tawny liveries, with the lion rampant in white embroidered upon the left sleeve, and in winter in coats of white frieze, lined with crimson taffeta. But all this cost money, and at the end of four years Lord Henry, having outrun his purse, found himself obliged to do as his parents had done under like cir- cumstances go into lodgings and retrench. Accord- YATE COURT. 117 ingly the young couple, with a few retainers, went to stay at Rising, in Norfolk, with Katherine's mother, the Countess of Surrey, paying ics. per week for themselves, 45. for their gentlemen, and 33. for the yeomen. By and by, however whether tiring of country life, or of wife, or of mother-in-law, does not transpire Lord Henry returned to London alone, and lived for some time with his own mother in Shoe Lane, where he beguiled the time with " cards, dice, tenys, bowles, and hawking and hunting in Gray's Inne fields, Islington, and Heygate." Having thus " had his fling," he rejoined his wife, and they seem to have resumed their old life ; for the next twenty years were spent (in the intervals of legal business, of which, like his ancestor, he had more than enough) in moving about between their various seats, and enjoying any sport that was to be had. Henry was passionately fond of the chase, both of hunting and hawking, two particularly valuable " haggard falcons," "Stella" and "Kate," being unsurpassed by any in England. In pursuit of his favourite pastimes he often risked life and limb, and on two occasions owed his preservation entirely to the cleverness and sagacity of his horse, a fine gelding named " Brinsley." Galloping full speed through Kingswood Chase after a stag, he would have gone headlong into an old coalpit, hidden by fern and brake, but his horse caught sight of it, and in an instant threw himself down on his side, his rider knowing nothing of the danger until he found himself 1 1 8 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. on the ground ! The other escape was exactly similar, except that the scene was a deep pool, hidden by bracken, in the Chase of Caludon. " Brinsley " was a great favourite (as well he might be), remarkable for strength and swiftness ; he once made the journey from Callowdon to London and back in forty-two hours, including the night's rest there. Lady Katherine fully shared her husband's love of the chase ; she was her- self an excellent shot with the longbow, and kept several merlins in her own chamber to the serious detriment of her gowns, which Lord Henry had fre- quently to replenish. Greater part of the first half of their married life was spent at Yate. Here he kept his buckhounds and his Christmas festivities, at least in the 2nd Elizabeth, entertaining his guests (although only the gentlemen and rurality of the country) " with much port and solemnity " ; and on Twelfth Day with such extra- ordinary " guilded dishes and vanities of the cookes art ; " not to mention c< a whole boar enclosed in a pale workmanly guilt by a cooke from Bristol," which excited Smyth's wonder as to " how it could have been brought to table." With all this cooking going on, and whole boars to roast, a fireplace as large as those (4! yards wide) in the kitchen of Dudley Castle must have been required ; in addition to the half-dozen " ovens " discovered on the east side of the courtyard during some alterations a few years ago. It was at Yate, too, in the spring of that same year YATE COURT. 119 that Lord Henry, through his ardent love of sport, and taking foolish counsel, marred his otherwise handsome face. Starting a hare while walking in the park, he so overheated himself in the pursuit that his nose began bleeding violently ; and, listening to ill advice, he " clapt his whole face into a basin of cold water, which brought on a flush and fulness of the nose which nothing could remedy, although he sent for the best physicians from London," finally going up thither himself to have the advice of the " whole college " ! Thanks to his hardy, outdoor life, Henry, although tall and slender, as were all the Berkeleys, had a strong constitution, and, in spite of youthful spoiling and love of amusement, possessed many pleasing qualities, being open and frank, sparing of speech, generous, and for- giving. Three of the children of Lord and Lady Henry were born at Yate. Ferdinando, the eldest son, in the 2nd of Elizabeth ; who, dying two years after- wards, was buried in the chancel of Yate Church ; Frances, " sweet and virtuous," afterwards married to Sir George Shirley ; and Katherine, who died young, and was buried at Yate. Mary, the eldest daughter, was born in London, 1558, u whither her mother was brought in a litter from Yate, with her nurse, fetched from Cheddar, whose reward for her services was 6s. 8d. at her departure.'' Oueen Mary herself stood sponsor to the infant. After Lady Anne's death, Lord Henry made his 120 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. principal residence at Caludon, and in the yth of Eliza- beth, having already outrun his purse, sold the remaining forty-two years' lease of Yate to Sir Nicholas Poyntz " for 600 li; thus parting with the ancient habitation of his father, grandfather, and great uncle, where they had bestowed great charge in building, and which he him- self had much repaired." Meanwhile, Lord Daubeney having died without issue, the manor reverted to the Crown, and was bestowed upon the Duke of Somerset. On his attainder, becoming again Crown property, it was granted, 1557, to James Basset ; and to his son Arthur, 1565. He, however, could not have possessed it long, for we find, from an old brass in the church of Yate, that Alexander Staples, Esq., was owner thereof in 1590. This brass, still in excellent preservation, is very curious, having engraved upon it the figures of the then Lord of Yate with his two wives and eleven children, all habited in the quaint costume of the period. From Burke's " Landed Gentry " we gather that this ancient owner of the manor came of a good old family who " took their name from Staple in Somerset and the Hundred of Staple in Wilts," in which counties, as well as in Gloucestershire, they had considerable pro- perty. Thomas, fifth son of Alexander, was created a baronet in 1628, and settled at Lissane, Ireland, where his descendant, Sir Nathaniel A. Staples, still resides. YATE COURT. 121 During the Irish massacres of 1641-2, "Lady Chanty Staples, relict of the 2nd Sir Thos. Staples," was taken prisoner by the O'Quins and confined in Moneymore Castle. In her evidence on oath at Londonderry she states (see ''Ireland in the iyth Century," by Mary Hickson) that while in prison in Moneymore Castle, she " looked out of the window where she was kept, and did see a Scotsman and five small children, with several others of the British nation, driven along by the rebels to be murdered ; and that she saw the rebels at that time cutting and slashing the poor British as they passed by her window, amongst whom was one, Archy Laggan," so miserably cut and hacked about, " insomuch that she heard him cry out and beg them for God's sake to give him leave to lie down and die." A harrowing picture. One, alas ! of many such presented by both parties during that terrible time. Sir Thomas Staples's eldest brother, Alex, having no son, left the English property to his two daughters ; but of them nothing is recorded. It is possible that one of them, or a descendant, married into the Oxwich family, as a Mr. Oxwich owned the manor at the beginning of 1700 ; but of him, likewise, nothing can be gleaned, although a large house in the neighbour- hood, still called " Oxwich Hall," was probably his residence. Late in the same century Yate had come into the possession of Sir Francis Knollis, he having bought it, and other property appertaining thereto, 122 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. with the fortune of his wife, a Miss Cator ; from them it has descended to its present owner, Mr. Cator Randolph, of Bath. From the foregoing it appears that the Staples' owned the Court at the time of the Civil War, and as the present representative of the family asserts that they have always been " loyal subjects," its destruction at the hands of the Parliamentarians might have been owing as much to party feeling as to expediency. So complete was the demolition, however, that it was never rebuilt, although, as was so often the case, a farmhouse subsequently arose among the ruins. This house, still inhabited, which stands on the west side of the courtyard, its outer wall encircled by the moat, contains portions of Lord Maurice's mansion. Some of the walls, from their thickness, have evidently formed part of the old structure ; as also the stairs, which, like those of Iron Acton Manor, time of Henry VII., are composed of solid blocks of oak, almost black, and hard as stone. Several doors, too, of the same material, one thickly studded with iron, are of that date, while many of the windows have the square Tudor head and dripstone. Across the court- yard, on the north-east, are the only ruins of the old mansion still left standing, except the gateway and a few fragments incorporated in the farm buildings. The principal ruin appears to have been a square tower of several storeys ; a now shapeless mass of strong masonry, within, seeming to suggest a spiral staircase ; YATE COURT. 123 but the whole is so thoroughly dilapidated and overrun with ivy, alder, and bramble, that it is impossible to ascertain anything clearly. That the remains form part of Lord Maurice's building, however, is certain, as the Berkeley lion rampant (an exact counterpart of those at Rodway) still decorates one of the ruined windows ; and these, as well as the doorways and fireplaces, are in the Tudor style. One fireplace, backed with zigzag tiling, is as firm and perfect now as if erected yesterday ; and while some old buildings on the east were being taken down to put up the present cowsheds, four or five large ovens were dis- covered, thus locating the " bakery," that important part of the domestic establishment ; its adjunct, the mill, may still be seen a short distance west of the moat. The old gateway, which bids fair to outlast the remaining fragments of the younger building, is described by Parker in his " Domestic Architecture " as " an interesting old ruin of the time of Edward I. ; the upper part has been mutilated, but the lower part is perfect (evidently the Parliamentarians found it too tough for them !) with the outer and inner archways ; there is a small ogee-headed doorway on each side, and a good fireplace in the first floor room that has a fine mantelpiece ornamented with four-leaved flowers." Over the outer archway, in which was the portcullis, is also a two-light, traceried window, belonging to the room described, with, I am told, some device carved above ; but the " envious ivy " now hides all from 124 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES, view ; while, owing to the many changes of ownership through which the manor has passed, whatever records once existed hive been lost. Yate Church is, for a village, a spacious and in- teresting structure, although of its history, also, no memorials remain. It is Perpendicular in style (except one portion, which bears traces of Norman workman- ship), with a nave and north aisle, two transepts, and what Rudge calls " three chancels ; " or rather, the chancel is in three divisions, the centre having been restored, retiled, &c., in 1879, by the present vicar, the Rev. Alfred Pontifex, who, together with his brothers, also presented a handsome stained-glass YATE COURT. 125 window. The roof of the chancel bears a sanctus turret, and in the north transept may still be seen some of the steps which led up to the rood loft. The ancient parish chest also remains intact ; while the massive doors, with their enormous wooden bolts and lock cases, seem intended to withstand a siege. The western entrance not being required, the space beneath the tower has been utilised as a vestry ; a beautiful carved oak screen, representing the four Evangelists, the work of a former parishioner, dividing it from the nave. The tower itself is very fine, rising up straight, and square, and shapely, far above the rest of the building, its arched doorway, and graceful, traceried windows, bearing eloquent testimony alike to the skill of the architect as to the liberality of the builder. Who these were it seems vain to inquire, the silent stones, destitute of inscription or armorial bearing, mocking all effort to find out. It is true that, carved on one of the topmost turrets, a keen eye can discern, grouped together, the fleur de lis, portcullis, and Tudor rose, which latter also appears on other parts of the tower ; but the name of him who ordered those Royal insignia to be placed there, has vanished with so much else that is curious and interesting, in the shadowy mists of the dim and voiceless Past. CHAPTER V. CALUDON CASTLE. THE battered remains of this ancient castle lie in the heart of Warwickshire, about three miles north-east of Coventry, and between it and Combe Abbey, the beautiful seat of the Earl of Craven. At the Conquest Caludon came into the possession of the Earls of Chester, descendants of the famous Lady Godiva, whose memory is still cherished in the ancient city ; the last of the Chesters giving it to Stephen de Segrave, a Baron and Chief Justice of England, in whose family it continued as long as the male line lasted. The estate of Caludon does not seem to have been extensive, comprising only some 200 acres of land, with a park of 20 acres, a pool, and two watermills. Nothing is said of a house ; but as the " one free- holder, John de la Hay," must have had some roof- tree, it is probable that he built the first dwelling erected on or near the site of the castle. In Henry III.'s reign the property was forfeited to the Crown, 136 CALUDON CASTLE. 127 but regained on payment of a fine. An immediate descendant of Stephen, Gilbert de Segrave, married the heiress of the Chaucumbs, from whom comes the "lion rampant" of the Berkeley arms. His son Nicholas obtained a " charter of free warren," i.e., control of the smaller game, such as hares, rabbits, pheasants, &c. He was succeeded by John de Segrave, who seems to have decided to make the place his home, for in 1305 he "obtained license from Edward I. to build a house at Caludon with moat and embattled walls ; this he afterwards enlarged, his son further extending the buildings and park, and building or rebuilding the chapel." Another John, grandson of the former and last of the line, married the Duchess of Norfolk ; and their daughter, in default of a son, carried the hereditary rank of Marshal of England. This daughter married Thomas de Mowbray, a powerful and wealthy Baron of Arholme, Lincolnshire, upon whom consequently devolved the barony of Segrave, and who brings us to the incident in the family record, which, although issuing so tragically to themselves, helped not a little towards the betterment of their native land an incident vividly chronicled by Hall, and which, in "Richard II.," inspired the graphic pen of the prince of play writers. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, son and suc- cessor of the great Baron of Arholme, accused Henry Duke of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV.) of treason- able speech against King Richard. Henry denied the 128 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. charge, and challenged Mowbray to single combat ; and the king, failing to make peace, commanded them to meet in his presence, near to Mowbray's Castle of Caludon, and decide the quarrel by force of arms. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1397, the lists were set with royal splendour upon Gosford Green, between Caludon and Coventry the spot is still shown. The King having arrived, and being seated on his throne beneath the royal pavilion, the combatants entered the lists fully armed, their horses and themselves resplen- dent in their respective colours ; Mowbray in crimson velvet, embroidered in silver with the mulberry-tree and lion rampant ; Henry, arrayed in blue and green embroidered with swans and antelopes of " goldsmith's work." Having professed the justness of their quarrel, and taken leave of king and courtiers, the marshal at the king's command bade, " Sound trumpets, and set forward combatants." Both sprang to horse, Henry riding impatiently forward, spear in rest ; but scarcely had Mowbray advanced a pace when Richard, the weak and vacillating, threw down his gauntlet as a signal for them to stop. The heralds shouted a restraining " Ho ! ho ! " and, advancing at the king's command, took the spears from the hands of the astonished combatants and bade them dismount and retire to their respective tents. There they sat on their gorgeous chairs of state for two weary hours, while Richard and the council he had hastily summoned came to the decision familiar to every reader of history, and on CALVDON CASTLE. 129 which, although they little thought it, hung the fate of king and kingdom; the decision condemning Mow- bray to banishment for life, and Hereford for ten years afterwards commuted to six. Long ere that time had elapsed Henry had returned to wear the crown which Richard had so deservedly forfeited ; but Mow- bray, after wandering remorseful and desolate for several weary years, " died of melancholy." He left three children : John, his successor ; Isabel, married to James ist, Lord Berkeley (this was the " Princely Lady Isabel," who died a prisoner in Gloucester) ; and Margaret, married to Lord Howard, Earl of Surrey. John was shortly succeeded by his son John, who had one little daughter ; Anne, married, before her seventh year, to Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the two hapless lads murdered in the Tower. The poor little Duchess did not long enjoy her dignity ; dying, according to Stowe, the very day after her marriage, and her immense estates finally passed to the Howards and Berkeleys ; William, Marquis Berkeley, inheriting half the vast property, including Caludon, in right of his mother, the Lady Isabel. Although owning, he did not enter into personal possession, as John de Mowbray had leased the castle and land for life to Sir Humphry Talbot. Maurice, brother and successor to Lord William, was the first Berkeley to live at Caludon ; he did not spend much of his time there, however, but entailed it upon his wife (another Lady Isabel) and children, and she, 9 130 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. after his death, lived and died there. On Lord Maurice's first visit, the abbot of the neighbouring monastery of Combe incurred his displeasure by not entertaining and honouring him as became the heir of the founder ot the monastery, and as he had honoured the other heir, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. Lord Maurice, therefore, filed a bill in Chancery to prove his descent and compel the abbot to entertain him as a " founder " and treat him with due reverence. The case was decided in his favour, and his posterity were thenceforth received with due homage; as is evidenced by the respect paid to the remains of the Lady Isabel when they were conveyed to their last resting-place beside her beloved husband in the church of the Augustine Friars in London. An account of the funeral ceremonies then observed has been left by Thomas Try, of Caludon, her relative and faithful administrator, and is well worth recording, as showing how a noble lady of those times was borne to her last resting-place. From the Wednesday of her death until the follow- ing Monday she was watched continually with prayer and the chanting of psalms, one company of priests succeeding another, while the bells of Coventry Priory and churches, and of the neighbouring monastery of Combe, kept up a doleful clang. On Sunday, her " horse-Jitter " having been provided, she was placed thereon, and the procession set forth. First, thirty women of her household in black gowns and kerchiefs CALUDON CASTLE. 131 upon their heads, one ell each, with raw edges to show they were cut out of new cloth, every woman bearing a wax taper of lib. weight. After them followed twenty-six " crafts " with two hundred torches ; about her hearse were her own servants, thirty-six, robed in black, and carrying waxen torches. Next after the crafts came the friars, white and grey, with their crosses : the priests, to the number of one hundred, likewise with crosses, preceded the hearse, and behind it walked five gentlewomen mourners. After them came the Recorder, and proxies for the family ; then the Mayor of Coventry, with Alderman, Sheriffs, Chamberlains, &c. " And so she was conveyed to the Mother Church (the Priory of Coventry), where she rested in the quire before the high altar all that night, and had a solemn derge ; and the Maire and his brethren went to Sir Michael's, where was a derge in like manner. And after derge they went into St. Mary's Hall, where a drynking was made for them ; first, cakys, comfetts, and ale, the second course, marmelet, snoket (sweets?), redd wyne and claret, and the third course, wafers and blanch powder with romney and muskadele ; and," adds the careful steward, " I thanke God, nor plate nor spones was lost, yet there was XXti desyn spones." On the following morning, after mass, they again set forward in the same order, except that the five lady mourners rode on horses draped with black, the gentlemen also rode in like manner. At Binley Bridge they were met by " my 132 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. lord the Abbot of Combe with his mitre, censing the hearse, and with him a great company, numbering five or six thousand." And then there was more feasting, " the bordes being set divers times," before the company separated, and the funeral cavalcade proceeded on its way. Verily, the committing of " earth to earth " must have been a costly process in those days ! Maurice 4th, Lord Berkeley, having no family, and spending much of his life abroad, let Caludon on lease for life to the afore-mentioned Thomas Try, a descendant or the Berkeleys, and a most faithful friend and counsellor. He afterwards granted twelve years' extension of the lease, to date from the death of Try, in recognition of his services to him while abroad. Lord Thomas 5th (of Yate and Mangotsfield), " from his great love to Gloucestershire," had determined at one time to ex- change Caludon and his manors in other shires for property in the latter county, but was dissuaded by the earnest representations of Try from thus sacrificing the ancient baronies of Segrave and Mowbray, from which his family took their titles. Caludon was part of the jointure of Lady Anne Berkeley, and immediately upon the death of Try, she went to take possession, ignoring the extended lease ; but was kept out by Try's widow and her son. Anne declared the lease forged, and had recourse to her usual argument a bill in Chancery ; which, after two years, was, by influence and misrepresentation, decided in her favour. During the interval she made frequent CALUDON CASTLE. 133 attempts to obtain forcible possession ; once filling up part of the moat with faggots to effect an entrance, and in the scrimmages both sides suffered considerably. She also claimed as part of the manor a house and lands in Binley, near by, which Try had bought and left to his illegitimate son, Gerrard ; and upon the latter remon- strating and showing his deeds, she threatened to make him " burn a faggot " (he was a Protestant) if he SEAL OF LORD HENRY BERKELEY. troubled her any more. This Gerrard subsequently became a priest, and so effectually assailed Lord Henry, Anne's son, with importunities and texts of Scripture, as to procure 405. a year, and a sum down in lieu of his land. At this time, 3rd of Mary, 1556, Cardinal Pole granted to Lord Henry, the successor of Thomas 6th, permission to " use his chapel in Caludon as his ancestors had done before the schism, and to have a 134 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. portable altar, to say mass and to receive the body and blood of Christ, and to keep the same in a box covered with a faire linen cloth, with a candle burning before it ;" and at the same time granted him the tithes before obtained from Pope Gregory, but which were lost at the schism. It is most probable, however, that in suing for this grant, Lord Henry was influenced more by the wishes of his mother and wife than by his own, as he appears to have leant to the reformed religion ; for we find him, some years afterwards, availing himself of one of the long sojourns he and his family occasionally made with friends and relatives, to shake off the Popish hangers-on of his wife, because they were not conformable to his tenets in religion. Lord Henry seems to have had a great liking for Caludon, for from the death of his mother in 1564, he lived almost entirely there, making only occasional sojourns at Berkeley and Yate. Probably the facilities for hunting and hawking which Warwickshire and the adjoining counties at that time afforded were one great attraction, both he and his wife, Lady Katherine, being such ardent devotees of the chase. They had no sooner settled at Caludon than they sent for their buck- hounds from Yate, and began a progress of buck- hunting in the neighbouring parks of Berkeswell, Bradgate, Groby, Leicester Forest, Ashby, and Kenil- worth. The Earl of Leicester, the owner of the latter, having, as we have seen, an eye to sundry properties of CALUDON CASTLE. 135 Lord Henry's, which he claimed as heir to the Lisles, professed great friendship for him, and invited him to Kenilworth to hunt as much as he listed ; lodging him in his own chamber as a brother and fellow-huntsman. Then, having secured the goodwill of his guest, whose open, honest nature was slow to suspect deceit in others, he deftly introduced the subject of pedigrees, saying he counted it an honour to be descended from his guest's noble house, and should much like to know the particulars of the connection. Whereupon Lord Henry courteously permitted him to send a herald to Caludon and Berkeley to search certain deeds ; which kindness the dishonourable and rapacious earl returned by abstracting many of them and using them to contest the possession of Wotton and other valuable estates. Indeed, the unsettled and involved tenure by which Lord Henry held his property, together with the litigious and overbearing dispositions of his mother and wife, involved him in continual lawsuits ; and as he had neither the legal acumen nor the learning of his progenitors, the Lords Maurice Berkeley, he lost heavily. Sir James Harris, Serjeant-at-Law in King James's reign, facetiously observed that " the Berkeleys had with their Jonge walking beaten smooth the pavement between Temple-barre and Westminster Hall ! " Some of Lord Henry's lawsuits, however, had their comic side ; as that in which he brought an action against Cyprian Wood, the groom of his wife's 136 SOME ANCIENT ENGLISH HOMES. chamber, to recover certain moneys which the Lady Katherine had given him to disburse shortly before her death ; Lord Henry bringing the man to account, not so much for the sake of the money, as because it had come to his ears that Wood (acting for one of the gentlewomen of the household) had attempted to steal a quantity of his fine linen. The said linen, with other valuables, had been packed, presumably by the " gentlewoman," in two trunks, which it was arranged were to be ferried over the moat, in one of the brew- house coolers, under cover of the darkness. The trunks had been safely conveyed to the bank and got aboard, but scarcely had the steersman pushed off two yards from shore when the bung-hole in the midst fell open, and the impromptu ferry-boat, being heavily laden, began to sink ! Dire was the consternation ; diverted, not lessened, by a sudden shout, as several of Lord Henry's retainers, who had got wind of the plot and set themselves to watch, sprang from their conceal- ment, and, rushing upon the scene, succeeded by dexterous exertions in rescuing the precious linen and restoring it to its rightful owner. Lord Henry's suits, however, were not always in defence of his own property. He seems to have taken a kindly interest in the affairs of his tenants and poorer neighbours, not unfrequently intervening to save them from the exactions and encroachments of rapacious land-holders. Which regard for justice, so unusual in those days, together with his boundless hospitality, and :' ' ir f. * . r ' f . JP : ^JjLMML o>^^T'W UA \\v.=$f,-- r ,v- : ^ * ; ^ . IK ; ;5^^ !j S^ftt .{.,,' ; - i^^^l I; %:- . ,1n^">? L - - "Tff^^' : 4 tj, -. H-., ,' ; ,,,:-*^,- : yr;^bja^ .^ ^ ^^^^^^g^^^^^SFp -,- ! . -- 1 ' V"" *%^. ; J5t*^H '_/'-', ^ ' A'^ ^ H i ^^^\i^^ --. ' ^^^- ; v:S .. CALUDON CASTLE. 139 candid, generous nature, won him a warm place in the hearts of the common people. Indeed, this lord, in spite of his too great love of amusement (and " His longe, slender, lady-like hand knew a dye as well and how to handle it as any of his rank and time ") was a right good and honourable gentleman the most upright in character and generous in nature of all the ancient lords of Berkeley. Caludon Castle under Lord Henry was a large and imposing mansion ; much more imposing and extensive, as indeed was the manor itself, than it was under his predecessors. Fortunately, Smyth gives some account of the additions and rebuildings, which will enable us to form a fairly accurate idea of its size and general appearance in this lord's time. He says : " About the 22nd of Elizabeth (1580) was the porter's lodge, the buildings towards the great pool on the north-western part of Caludon House, with the brewing house, the stables, and many other out- houses, both within and without the moat, built of new ; and the roofs of those old castle buildings taken down and so altered that the whole house might be said to have been moulded and made new. But for the banqueting house on the north side of the said pool, it was the polite work of the Lady Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Berkeley, in the 4