is^'tf

r.,' ^yy.:-:

/V O^ Xf A/' .

Yale Center for British Art and British Studi

es

\^

1- '

.^'

I

icL

ij

\

F, M. Good, Photo.

Woodhiirytype.

PRINCIPAL FRONT.

BRAMSHILL= "^^^^

ITS

History & Architecture,

BY

SIR WILLIAM H. COPE, Bart.

H. J. INFIELD, 1 60, FLEET STREET, E.C.

B73 Cbt

To
The Honourable
ISABEL GOUGH-CALTHORPE
THIS ACCOUNT OF BrAMSHILL,
UNDERTAKEN AT HER SUGGESTION,
IS,
WITH SINCERE REGARD,
DEDICATED.

PREFACE.
It has been said that a faithful record of the events of any life
would have some interest ; it is perhaps truer still to say that the
history and description of an ancient building of architectural note,
on a site occupied for many centuries, have some claim to be
preserved. This may be thought to justify me in publishing the
records of the history of Bramshill which I had collected in a long
life, during many years of which I was in almost daily study of its
architectural features. The many friends who have visited it have
been interested in my narrative of its history, and my observations
on its architecture ; and an invitation to read a paper before the
Newbury Field Club, many years ago, led me to throw them together
in a concise and rough shape. The suggestion of a kind friend that
I should expand my notes and put them into a more enduring shape
has led to the production of the following volume.
Prefaces are the vehicles of excuses. Mine are at least sincere
when I say that I cannot presume to call myself an archeeologist,
and cannot pretend to architectural knowledge beyond that of the
style and structure of my own house. But though thus slightly
qualified for the work, I had accumulated a good deal of documentary
evidence as to the History of Bramshill : and if a loving acquaintance
with every part of the building could supply the lack of architectural
knowledge, I felt that I ought at least to endeavour to perpetuate
the history and description of Bramshill.

VI.

The reader will find how much I owe to the kindness of
Mr. Fergusson, both in decyphering the structure of an older house
on the same site, and indicating the manner in which portions of it
were utilized in the present building. My best thanks are due to
Mr. Ernest Collier, to whose pencil I owe the accurate architectural
details which grace my pages ; and I am indebted for the four
photographic views (reproduced by the Woodbury process) to Mr.
F- Mason Good, of Winchfield, whose many photographs of the
exterior and interior of Bramshill and of the scenery of the park
are well known.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Descent of the Manor ... ... ... ... ... i
Derivation of the name ... ... ... ... 3
Archbishop Abbot's unhappy deer-stalking ... ... 11
Former Mansion on the site ... ... ... ... 15
Erection of the present house ... ... ... 18
Its original condition .., ... ... ... ... 23
Description of the Architecture ... ... ... 25
Description of the interior ... ... ... ... 38
The Tapestries ... ... ... ... ... ... 43
The oak chest ... ... ... ... ... ... 51
The Chapel   56
The Park and fir-trees... ... ... ... ... 66
List of pictures ... ... ... ... ... ,.. "j-i^
Appendix I. — The Ancient Chapel ... ... ... 113
,, II. — The Hall Screen ... ... ... 120
,, III. — Painter' s bill for the original decoration
of the house ... ... ... ... 121
,, IV. — The oak chest ... ... ... ... 125
,, V. — Inscriptions at Hanwell ... ... 127
,, VI. — Account of Hanwell, Oxfordshire ... 128
, , VII. — L ist of published views of Bramshill ... 131

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Principal front ...
Cellars under Southern wing ...
Section and vaulting of ancient cellars
Plan of a mansion of the XIV or XV Centuries
Plan of Bramshill in its original state
Ornament over the principal entrance
Parapet over the cloister porch
North-western front
Door from the Terrace
Section of Mullions
Plan of ground floor ...
View of Terrace
Door from Billiard room to Pebble-court
Window of the former Chapel
Plan of first floor
View of Garden and Terrace fronts ...

Frontispiece. PAGE

l6
17
21
232627
31 3335 36
404142 44
6=^

BRAMSHILL.

RAMSHILL, a tything of the parish of Eversley, is
situated in the extreme north of Hampshire, on the
borders of Berkshire, from which it is separated by the
river Blackwater, which bounds it on the north. On
the east it is bounded by Eversley ; on the west by the
parish of Heckfield ; and on the south by Hazeley,
Hartley -Wintney, and Elvetham. It contains an area of 2,083 acres,
of which nearly half (926 acres) is common land, consisting of heath,
moor, and fir woods.
The earliest mention of it I have met with is in the Domesday
Survey, in which it occurs twice.
One manor is noted as in Boseberg (now Bosmere) hundred : but,
by a scribal error. Bosmere hundred is in the south-east corner of the
county. The rubric Boseberg Hd. had been affixed to Hugh de Port's
manor of Brochemptune, just above. And the scribe did not affix the
rubric Holesete Hd. (Holdshot hundred) to the next following manor of
Effele (Heckfield), which immediately precedes Bramshill. He did
mark it opposite the manor of Stradfelle (Stratfieldsaye), which follows.
By this mistake the manors of Heckfield and Bramshill are made to
appear in Bosmere hundred, where no places having any similarity in
name can be found. A curious result of this error has been that when
Bramshill was taken out of Bosmere, it was placed, not in Holdshot
hundred — to which it naturally belonged — but in Odiham hundred, in
which it still remains.
At the time of the Survey, it was held by that Leviathan of
Hampshire land-holders, Hugh de Port. Two free-men held it

allodially (in freehold) of King Edward the Confessor, as two manors.
It was then assessed at one hide, now at half-a-hide. There were two
villeins and two boors with one ploughland, and the fourth part of a
mill worth tenpence, and three acres of meadow. There was wood for
two hogs. In the time of King Edward, and since, it was valued at
ten shillings ; now at twenty shillings.
Ipse Hugo tenet Bromeselle. Duo liberi homines tenuerunt de
Rege Edwardo in alodium pro ii. maneriis ; tunc geldabat pro una hidi,
modo pro dimidia hida. Ibi sunt 2 villani et 2 bordarii cum uni caruca
et quarta pars molini de 10 denariis et 3 acrse prati. Silva de 2 porcis.
T. R. E. et post valebat 10 solidos ; modo 20 solidos. — Domesday,
Hants., f., 45, b.
The other manor is correctly described as in Holdshot hundred. At
the time of the Survey it was the property of Gilbert de Breteville
(or Breteuil), who held it with the King's manor of Swallowfield in
Berkshire, from which it is separated only by the river Blackwater.
Alwi and Elsi held it in freehold of King Edward as two manors.
Then, and at the time of the Survey, it was assessed at two hides, less
one yardland. There was land requiring two ploughs, and two were in
demesne with four villeins and one plough and a mill, worth twenty-five
pence, and six acres of meadow. There was wood sufficient for two
hogs. In the time ofthe Confessor it was worth forty shillings, after
wards twenty shillings and five pence ; now twenty-five pence. It is
added that the men of the hundred affirm that this manor was never
attached to the Royal Manor [of Swallowfield].
Idem Gislebertus [de Bretevile] tenet Bromeselle, cum manerio
Regis de Swalefelle quod est in Berchesire. Alwi et Elsi tenuerunt in
alodium de Rege Edwardo pro ii. maneriis. Tunc et modo geldabat
pro ii. hidis und virgata minus. Terra est ii. carucis. In dominio sunt
duse [carucae] et iiii. villani cum i. caruca et molinus de 25 denariis et vi,
acr^ prati. Silva de ii. porcis. T. R. E. valebat 40 solidos et post 20
solidos et 5 denarios. Modo 25 denarios. Hoc manerium nunquam
pertinuit ad manerium Regis sicut hundredum dicit. — f., 48, a.
The manors thus described are easily identified with those now

known as Little and Great Bramshill. The former comprising the
park and common immediately adjoining ; the latter consisting of the
farms and common lying along the Blackwater, and the hamlet known
as Bramshill Row.
On the Domesday notices of them, some remarks may not be out
of place. The mill, of the profits of which Little Bramshill is said to
enjoy a fourth or ten-pence, must have been the mill situated in Great
Bramshill (probably on the Blackwater), and which is there valued at
twenty-five pence. In point of fact, as the mill was worth 25 pence to
the one manor and 10 pence to the other = 35 pence, Little Bramshill had
not really a fourth, but two sevenths, while Great Bramshill had the
other five sevenths. But I was informed by Mr. Eyton that " Domes
day avoids fractions and seldom expresses them with strict accuracy." ^''^
And the value stated as that of Great Bramshill at the time of the
Survey — 25 pence — seems, manifestly, a clerical error. For this is
given as the value of the mill alone, while it is stated that there was
arable land sufficient to require two ploughs, and that three ox-teams
were actually employed. The value of Great Bramshill, as of so many
other estates throughout the country, had fallen, on account of its
disturbed state immediately after the Conquest, to nearly half what it
was worth in the Confessor's time : from forty shillings to twenty
shillings and five pence. But it probably somewhat improved in value
as the country became more settled under the Norman rule ; and, no
doubt, we should read twenty-five shillings as its worth at the time of
the Survey. The disclaimer of the jurors of all dependence of Great
Bramshill manor on the King's manor of Swallowfield is interesting.
Both manors are spelt in Domesday Bromeselle. The first syllable
is the Saxon form of its modern equivalent " Broom," which grows
freely here, and perhaps was even more abundant when much of the
land was waste or forest. The last syllable appears to be the Norman

''¦' For this explanation of the record of Domesday I am indebted to the late Reverend
R. W. Eyton, whose works on the Domesday of Dorset and Somerset attest his great
knowledge of the text and meaning of that record.

scribe's version ofthe Saxon "hul," a hill.*'-' And, no doubt, the high
ground on which the house is situated, radiant with the glories of the
golden-blossomed broom, may well have led the neighbouring " bor
darii " and "villani" to call the district the Hill of Broom, " Bromshill."
The local pronunciation of the name, which accents the first syllable
with the broad Hampshire a = aw, not differing materially from the
Brom of Domesday, seems to confirm this derivation of the name.
Certain it is that the modern spelling of Bramshill is not older than
the seventeenth century, and seldom occurs till a much later period ;
while the pronunciation with the accent on the last syllable, or even the
distinct expression of that syllable is utterly unknown in Hampshire.
So much is this the case that some friends of mine (strangers to the
neighbourhood) driving over to visit me, and asking their way to
Brams/^z'//, were answered, over and over again, by those of whom they
enquired, that " They had never heard of it," or " That it wasn't near
here " ; till, on mentioning my name, the exclamation at once was " Oh !
you mean Bramzle."
The descent of De Breteville's manor I am unable to trace ; or
when the two manors, still locally distinguished as Great and Little
Bramshill, coalesced and became the property of one Lord, as they
have been from a remote period. The manor of Great Bramshill
seems subsequently to have been known by the name of Moor Place.
For I find in a document, dated 1666, and in another, without date
but a little subsequent to it, the expression " The Mannors of Bramshill
and Moore Place." The manor-house of Moor Place still stands, and
is now a farm-house. Its chimney-stacks and one or two fire-places
shew it to be ofthe time of Henry VII.
The other — Hugh de Port's — manor continued in the family of its
Norman possessor for nine generations. It was owned by John St.
John of Basing at his death in 1275,^''-' for such was then the family-.
name, his grandfather, William de Port, having assumed it. In 1337
•'•'This derivation of the name I owe to the kindness of the Reverend J. Earle,
Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford.
'=•' Inquis post mortem, 3 Edward I., 67.

it was the property of Hugh St. John,^'-' the grandson of John ; and
Edmund, the son of Hugh, died possessed of it in 1346.^°-'
At his death the male line of his family failed ; and his vast
Hampshire estates passed, by marriages of heiresses, through the
family of Poynings, to the Paulets ; whom we shall find, two centuries
later, owners of Bramshill, though not by descent.
But about this period Bramshill passed away from the St. Johns
to the Foxleys. Indeed, at a little earlier date, we find that Sir John
Foxley at his death was the owner, with Constance his wife (who
probably held it in dower), of a messuage and some land at Bramshill.^^.)
Whether a house existed at Bramshill before that date I do not know;
but Sir John Foxley appears to have founded and built a private chapel
here. For as early as 1306, Henry Woodlock, Bishop of Winchester,
granted to him and to Constance, his wife, permission to have the
Divine Office celebrated in the Chapel of Bramshill, when and as often
as they should be at their manor of Bramshill.^''-' In 1312-13, Sir John
endowed his Chapel at Bramshill ; for he then paid a fine of forty
shillings for a licence from the King (Edward II.) to give lands in
Staines to Nicholas Hagman, then parson of the Church of Eversley,
to find a chaplain to celebrate daily in his Chapel at Bramshill.*'^ And
a little later, in 1323, the Vicar-General of Reginald Asser, Bishop of
Winchester (the Bishop himself being abroad), approved and confirmed
the permission granted by Nicholas Walrond, then Rector of Eversley,
'' ' Inquis post mortem, 1 1 Edward III., 49.
'''¦'Inquis post mortem, 20 Edward III, 57.
<3' Inquis p. mort., 18 Edward II., 38, Bromshulle infra forest [de Pamber] un'
messuag' iiiixx acr' terr' ibid.
<*' Bishop Woodlock's Register, fol. 41, b.
'^¦' Abbreviatio Rotul., Orig., 6 Edward II., Ro. 15. — Nicholas Hagman had been
presented to the Rectory of Eversley by John Hagman (Bishop Woodlock's Regist, fol.,
16, b). Alan de Hagheman, or Hagman, had in 1276 a release and quit-claim from
William de Wanton, son and heir of Amicius de Wanton, to him and his wife Amicia, of
the manor of Eversley, and advowson of the Church (Abbrev. Placitorum, Term. S.
Mich. 4-s, Edward I.).

to Sir John Foxley and Constance his wife to hear the Divine Office,
celebrated by their own chaplain, in the Chapel which they had caused
to be built and erected in their manor of Bramshill.*'-'
In 1316-17, Sir John Foxley had a grant of Free-warren in his
Estates of Bramshill and Haseley, within the bounds of the Royal
Forest of Eversley ; and of Bray, in Windsor Forest *^-' (more famous
for its vicars than its owners).
Sir John Foxley died in 1324-5, and at the death of Constance,
his widow, Bramshill passed to their son, Thomas Foxley. He had,
in 1347, licence to inclose 2,500 acres in Bramshill and Haseley,
and to make the Park,*^-' now actually existing, which thus has a date
of more than five centuries. In 1328, he was appointed Constable of
Windsor Castle,*'*-' which office he held till his death ; *5-' and, in 1351,
was, with two others, appointed to survey the workmen employed at
Windsor at least once a month.*''-' He died in 1361, possessed of
Bramshill,*'-' and was succeeded by his son, another Sir John Foxley.
He was also a person of some eminence, and was Member of
Parliament for Hampshire. He certainly resided at Bramshill ; for
his curious will is dated there on the 5th November, 1378. He
seems to have been a personal friend of the great Bishop of the
Diocese, William of Wykeham ; for he bequeaths to him a gold ring
set with a sapphire, and other things ; and he directs his executors to
be guided in certain matters by the ordering and consent of the Bishop
of Winchester. This friendship seems to have been hereditary: for,
<"¦' Bishop Asser's Regist. fol. 27. — Walrond seems to have been Hagman's successor in
the Rectory of Eversley. See more of the History of the Chapel (which is curious) in
Appendix i.
<^-' Calendarum Rotul. Chartarum, 10 Edward II., 26. The original charter is in my
possession. '3'Cal. Rot. Chart., 21 Edward III., 19. "Rege in partibus Cales commorante."
''^' Pat., 2 Edward III., p. 2, m. 19.
'-"'¦' Richard la Vache succeeded him in 1360-1. Rot. Orig., 34 Edward III., rot. 3.
<*'Pat. 25 Edward IIL, p. i, m. 12.
''-' Inquis. p. mort., 34 Edward IIL, 55.

in the statutes of New College, one of the three persons for whom
Bishop Wykeham orders mass to be daily said in the College-Chapel is
Thomas Foxley, Sir John's father.*'-'
He appears to have taken much interest in the private Chapel of
his house at Bramshill. For he bequeaths to its fabric three shillings
and four pence, and to its altar a priestly vestment with ornaments, and
a chasuble of white silk, with other things pertaining thereto ; and he
desires that, in case of failure of issue of certain of his legatees, the
ornaments bequeathed to them should revert to his Chapel.
He died soon after the execution of this will, and is buried at
Bray, where his monument still exists. He was succeeded in his
estate of Bramshill by his illegitimate son, Thomas Foxley. He was,
in fact, what was called " bastard aisne," being the son of Sir John
Foxley by Joan Martin, whom he afterwards married ; and he was
by the Civil Law, and under certain conditions by the law of England,
capable of inheriting real property*^'. He did so inherit Bramshill
and other estates of his father ; but his right to Bramshill was not
undisputed. For, in 141 2- 13, William Warbleton brought an action
against him for intruding in his (Warbleton's) Manor of Bramshill,
which he claimed to be his in right of his grand-mother, Katherine*^-',
(who was a legitimate daughter of Sir John Foxley, and married to
John de Warbleton, of Sherfield-on-Loddon). And with the object,
no doubt, of rebutting such claims, Thomas Foxley obtained, in 1429,
from Margery, widow of John Hertington'"*-' (his quasi niece), a demise,
<'•' Rub. 42.— Secunda vero missa ob requiem pro animabus bonse memorise. . . .
Radulphi de Sutton, militis, Johannis de Scures, militis, et Thomae de Foxle, csterorum
nostri et ipsius colegii benefactorum. And again : — Duae alije missae . , . una
specialiter pro anima Radulphi de Sutton ; et alia specialiter pro animabus Johannis de
Scures, militis, et Thomae de Foxle defuuctorura, etc. These statutes were promulgated
in 1400. Thomas Foxley had died, as I have noted, in 1361.
''^i Blackstone's Commentaries, 1793, ii., 248.
'3'Rot. Coram Rege, 14 Hen. IV.
'*' She was daughter of Margery Foxley, the other legitimate daughter of Sir John, who
married Robert Bullock. Her mother and the grandmother of Warbleton, the claimant,
were sisters, and (putting aside Thomas Foxley as illegitimate) co-heirs of Sir John Foxley.

8
to him, described as Thomas Foxley son of Sir John Foxley, of all her
right, etc. in the manors of Bray, Finchampstead, Bromshill, Rumble-
deswyke, and Apulderfield, together with the advowsons of the Churches
of Finchampstead and Rumbledeswyke, and of the Chapel of Apulder
field — in the counties of Berks, Southampton, Wilts, Sussex, and Kent,
which formerly were the possessions of Sir John Foxley, Knight.*''
Thomas Foxley died 2nd November, 1436; and, though he had
been twice married, left no male issue. But, by his first wife, Margery
Lytton, he had a daughter, Elizabeth Foxley, who married Sir Thomas
Uvedale, of Wickham, in Hampshire. She died before 1454, having
had issue a son, Henry Uvedale, who died childless in 1469,*^' and
two daughters, Elizabeth and Agnes.*^' It would seem that Sir
Thomas Uvedale possessed Bramshill in her right; for, on 19th June,
1467, William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, issued a sequestration
of the fruits of the Chapel of Bramshill, directed to Sir Thomas
Uvedale, Knight, and the [rural] Dean of Basingstoke, in consequence
of the inefficiency of the said Chapel.*-*' No doubt, on the marriage of
Elizabeth Foxley, and her residence (most probably) with her husband
at Wickham, in the south of the county, the Chapel had fallen into
desuetude and neglect. And Bishop Waynflete, a most active Prelate
and a great reformer of abuses, sequestered the endowment of the
proceeds of the land at Staines, no longer applied to its original
purpose (see page 5), to Sir Thomas Uvedale, the representative in
right of his wife of the original donors. Sir Thomas died on the 20th
February, 1474.
Either Bramshill was sold, or, more probably, passed by marriage,
to the family of Rogers, of Berkshire. I have been unable to find
evidence of such a marriage ; but, as Elizabeth Uvedale (Foxley) had
two daughters, who were born before 1436, it is not unlikely that one
of them may have married the father of Thomas Rogers, who certainly
"•'Close Roll, 8 Hen. VL, p. i, m. 24.
'°' Mr. Granville Leveson Gower's Notices of the Family of Uvedale, p. 31.
'3' Kerry's Hundred of Bray, p. 402.
<"¦' Regist. Will. Waynflete, Bish. of Winton, i., f. 89, *b.

was in possession of Bramshill thirteen years after Sir Thomas
Uvedale's death ; for, on the ist February, 1487, he, by deed, conveyed
Bramshill (and other estates) to trustees to his own use for life, and
then to William Essex (son of Thomas Essex) and Elizabeth, his
wife, daughter and heir of the said Thomas Rogers.*'-' He died in
January, 1489, in possession of Bramshill, and Elizabeth wife of
William Essex was found to be his heir, and then of the age of
thirteen years.*^-'
The youth of this young married lady is remarkable. As she was
described as William Essex's wife two years before her father's death,
she could not have been above eleven years old when she was married.
We shall see presently that the boy-husband was not older, if so old.
However, the youthful couple, or their advisers, did not long
retain possession of Bramshill. For on the 14th May, 1499, probably
as soon as William and Elizabeth Essex came of age, they, with
Thomas Essex his father, conveyed Bramshill to Giles, Lord Daubeney,
Chamberlain to King Henry VII.*^-' It appears from the deed that
Lord Daubeney already occupied the manor and lands he then
purchased ; and as Thomas Essex disclaims all responsibility for the
performance of the covenants after his son attains the age of twenty-two
years, it is evident that William Essex was not born before 1477, and,
therefore, was the husband of Elizabeth Rogers when ten years old.
Whether Lord Daubeney resided at Bramshill I do not know. A
trace of his connection with it exists in a noble brass cross, inlaid
in a large slab of marble, in the chancel of Eversley Church, which
bears at its foot the following inscription : —
•• I&ic iacet EicarHua pentiilton quoHam fuus ppotcntia biri (Oeitiii BatDBneg
Eeei nro ftenrtco feptimo Camcrarij 2Dui oUit anno Bnt millmo 8
gCaECC^Eoii" icjc Hie Septemfiria Ira tincali 93 cui'aie ppicietur Ueus.ame."
Lord Daubeney died in 1507, and seems to have been succeeded
in the possession of Bramshill by his son. He in some way alienated
it (probably mortgaged it) and afterwards recovered it ; for, on the 26th
''•' Information from Colonel Chester.
''¦' Inquis. p, mort., from Colonel Chester.
'3' Close Roll, 14 Henry VIL, No. 24 (Bromeshill).
C

ID

June, 15 15, he obtained a pardon for having acquired without licence
the manor of Bramshill, Hants, from Sir Leonard Grey and Elizabeth
his wife.*'-' At the death of Henry, 2nd Lord Daubeney, who had been
created Earl of Bridgewater, Bramshill seems to have escheated
to the Crown. For on the 20th September, 1547, it was granted*''
by Edward VI. to William Paulet, Lord St. John ; and thus
reverted, after it had been for two centuries in the hands of
other owners, to the family who possessed it at the compilation
of Domesday. Lord St. John, the grantee, was afterwards created
Marquis of Winchester. He it was who attributed his passing
safely through all the political and religious changes of his long life
to his having been "a willow not an oak." But the long and
versatile life at last had an end; and, at its conclusion in 1572,
Bramshill passed to his son and successor, John, the 2nd Marquis.
For I find that he held his first manorial court a few weeks after his
father's death *3-'.
The Marquises of Winchester continued in possession till the end
ofthe century:. for on the 4th March, 1595, William, 3rd Marquis,
made a lease of the lodge, park, and lands of Bramshill to William
Poulet, otherwise Lambert, of Basingstoke, for 99 years, at the nominal
rent of ^3. 6s. Sd.*"*' This lessee was, no doubt, the eldest of his four
illegitimate sons by Mistress Lambert. He was afterwards knighted,
and was seated at Eddington, in Wiltshire. All these four sons were
knights ; " to whom, as I have heard," says Sir William Dugdale, " he
granted leases of lands for a term of an hundred years, of little less
than four thousand pounds per annum value." This Mistress Lambert,
the mother of his natural children, may have been his relation ; for
Sir George Powlet, of Crondal, third brother of the ist Marquis of
"•' Pat. 7, Hen. VIII.;(Bromyshyll).
<°' Pat. roll, I Edward VI. , p. 3 (Bramley alias Bramshell).
'3'Curia legalis prima Johannis Powlett, Militis, Comitis Wilteschire et Marchionis
Wintoniae, tenta 22 die Aprilis, anno regni Elizabethae Reginae, xiv°. Court Rolls of
Bramshill, in my possession.
'''¦' Original lease in my possession.

It
Winchester, had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Walter Lambert.
She may have been of that family.
On the 29th October, 1600, William, 4th Marquis of Winchester
and the Lady Lucy, his wife, sold the manor and park of Bramshill to
Sir Stephen Thornhurst and his wife. From them it passed by sale
(William Poulet having assigned his lease) to Edward, Lord Zouche of
Harringworth, the builder of the present house, in March, 1605.
The Marquises of Winchester do not appear ever to have resided
at Bramshill, occupying their noble house of Basing, some eight miles
distant. What the " lodge " was, which was leased to William Poulet,
or Lambert, it is now impossible to tell. It may have been some part
of the old Foxley mansion, of which we shall see that portions yet
existed, which might still have been habitable.
But Lord Zouche certainly soon occupied his new-built mansion ;
for William Browne dedicates to him, in 1614, his " Shepherd's Pipe,"
in these lines : —
" Be pleased (Great Lord) when underneath the shades
Of your delightful Bramshill ''•' (where the Spring
Her flowers for gentle blasts with Zephyrs trades).
Once more to hear a silly shepherd sing."
And in a letter from E. Wotton to Lord Zouche, without date,*"' he
begins : — " Most noble Lorde, I am exceedingly sory it was my
misfortune to be from home, when your Lp. came to my house,
and I am no lesse sory that your Lp. would not stay there, where
you have as absolute power to commande, as at your own sweet
Bramshyll," These epithets shew that the beauties of the place were appreciated
even in the earliest days of the present structure.
But the most remarkable event connected with Bramshill during
Lord Zouche's occupancy occurred in 162 1 ; when George Abbot,
Archbishop of Canterbury, being advised to take country-air, paid
him a visit ; and, on the 24th July, went out into the park to recreate
'•-' It will be observed that the prosody of this line requires that the name, Bramshill,
should be accented on the first syllable, as I have before pointed out.
•'' Communicated to me by my friend, Mr. Alfred J. Harwood.

12
himself by shooting at the deer with a cross-bow. While engaged
in this sport, rather inconsistent with his strenuous support of the
Puritanical faction in the Church, and with his opposition to the " Book
of Sports " three years before, he discharged a barbed arrow at a deer,
but, missing it, unfortunately shot the keeper, Peter Hawkins, in the
left arm. Some large vessel was severed, and the poor keeper, who
had been warned to keep out of the Archbishop's way (who was
probably an unsafe shot), bled to death in an hour.*'-' The events
which followed this accident : the suspension of Abbot from all
Episcopal and Metropolitical functions ; the Commission of Prelates
and Canonists to examine and report on the matter ; the refusal of
four Bishops elect to receive consecration from " his blood-stained
hands ; " and his subsequent restoration ; all these belong, not to the
history of Bramshill, but to the ecclesiastical history of England.*''-'
But I may notice that from that day to the close of his life the
Archbishop observed a monthly fast on Tuesday, the day of his
unhappy deer-shooting at Bramshill ; and that he settled a pension
of ^20 a year on the widow of the keeper, and by his will bequeathed to
her an annuity of that amount for her life.*^-' But the statement, often
made, that he built his noble Hospital, at Guildford, as a fruit of his
repentance for blood-shedding is groundless. He had, in fact, founded
it two years before, in 1619; and he actually retired there after his
misadventure at Bramshill, and there awaited the result of the
proceedings consequent on it.
Lord Zouche was a man of eminence. He had been ambassador
to Scotland, when that embassy was an important one, and required
a skilled diplomatist and a wise man to fill it ; he was Lord Warden of
the Cinque Ports. He is said to have been a lover of horticulture ;
Bramshill proves that he had a taste in architecture ; and Browne's
verses seem to confirm the tradition that he was the associate and
friend of literary men. He died in 1625, and was buried in the parish
'¦¦'Peter Hawkins was buried at Eversley on the 25th July, 1621.
''•' They are fully detailed in Speaker Onslow's " Life of Archbishop Abbot."
'3'' See his Will, ihid, p. 65.

13
church of Eversley, but no memorial exists to his memory. By his
will, dated 1617, he bequeathed Bramshill house. Park, and all
his lands, tenements and hereditaments in Bramshill, Eversley, Heyslea
[Hazeley], Heckfield and Mattingley, to Sir Edward Zouche, Knight,
Marshal of the King's Household, and to his heires males, " as a
token of " his " true affection to him and his being of " his " blood, and
the son of him" he "loved best in" his "life, except the Lord Gray
of Wilton."*'-' But if Lord Zouche thought that by this bequest he
had secured the continuance of Bramshill in his blood and name, it was
a vain hope : for within thirteen years after his death, Dorothy, Lady
Zouche, the widow of his devisee, and James Zouche, her son, sold
Bramshill, for ;^i 2,000, to Randal MacDonnell, 2nd Earl of Antrim.
Some curious notices of this purchase occur in Archbishop Laud's
correspondence with the celebrated Earl of Strafford, then Lord Deputy
of Ireland. Writing on the 28th August, 1637, the Archbishop says :
" Lord Antrim hath now purchased the house which my Lord Zouche
built at Bramshill, near Hartley-row, with some little land to it ; and
a great pennyworth he had." Laud was a native of Reading, a few
miles distant, and, no doubt, knew it well. " I think," he continues,
"the reason of the purchase was the unheal thfulness of Newhall in
Essex, which, especially at this time of the year, is very aguish ; his
Lordship is very much beholding to you for furnishing him with so
much money." *°-'
In another letter, from Lambeth, nth November, 1637, the
Archbishop adds : — " The truth is Bramsell was purchased for the
un wholesomeness of Newhall. And I came thus to know it. In
Hugh May's lifetime the purchase was offered to my choice for any
friend I had;*^-' and I, then knowing what was like to be between the
'"•' It may be worth notice that he bequeaths " to the Lord Archbishop now living
[Abbot] a cup of gold of an hundred pounds, as a token of " his " love and entire
aff'ection towards him."
'''' Strafford Letters, ii. 100.
'3' Hugh May had a mortgage on Bramshill from James Zouche (" young Zouche " of
this letter) for £2,700.

14
Duke of Lennox and his now Lady,*'' made him the offer of it : he
could not go through with it. After the death of my Lord of Antrim,
the father,*'-' my Lady Duchess of Buckingham, disliking the air at
Newhall (as she had reason), spake with me about Bramsell. Hugh
May was then dead, so my interest was at an end ; but I referred her
to young Zouche the owner of it : so the thing went on." *3-'
The Duchess of Buckingham was the widow of the favourite of
James and Charles I., who was assassinated by Felton at Portsmouth ;
and mother of the witty and profligate Duke of Charles I I.'s Court.
She had re-married shortly before (in 1635) the Earl of Antrim.
Whether "My Lady Duchess " disliked the sharp air of Bramshill
as much as the aguish air of Newhall, I know not. I have been
informed by one of her descendants, who has perused some of her
correspondence and papers, that these shew her to have been of a
querulous and changeable disposition. Be this as it may, the Earl, her
husband, did not retain his purchase much more than two years. For,
on the 25th June, 1640, Lord Antrim sold Bramshill (for ;^9,50o) to
Sir Robert Henley.
His son. Sir Andrew, was created a Baronet at the Restoration.
But the Henleys did not long retain possession of Bramshill ; and the
downward career of this family is remarkable. Sir Robert, the 2nd
Baronet, is said to have left, at his death in 1681, the estate ;^20,ooo
in debt ; and the number of his mortgages in my muniment-room
confirm the truth of this statement. Sir Andrew his brother was
more extravagant and culpable still. For, not only did the incumbrances
on the estate multiply, and a marriage with a person apparently in
humble life discredit him, but it is recorded that he " killed a man and
fled for it in 1695." *¦*'
"¦' James Stuart, Duke of Lennox, married, in the month in which this letter is dated,
Lady Mary Villiers, daughter of " My Lady Duchess of Buckingham."
"¦' He died loth December, 1636.
'3' Straiford Letters, ii., 131-2.
'''¦' He was still living in 1699, when he signed articles of agreement with Sir John Cope
for the purchase of Bramzell.

15
Four years later, Sir John Cope, the eldest son of the 5th Baronet,
purchased Bramshill house and estates from the representatives and
creditors of the Henleys*'-' for ^^2 1,500. As an illustration of the
manners of the time, I may notice that I find, in a contemporary
memorandum of the expenses incidental to the purchase, an item of " A
present to Lady Henley, ;^53. i5s." = fifty guineas at ^i. is. 6d., the
then value of the guinea. This was, no doubt, intended to lubricate
the purchase. The bulk of the ancient estates of the Cope family, with the seats
of Hanwell, Brewerne, and Tangley, in Oxfordshire, had been left by
Sir Anthony, the 4th Baronet, to his brother and successor. Sir John,
for life only ; but he devised them at his death to pass to a cousin, to
the exclusion of his brother's children by Anne (Booth), his wife. In
consequence of this disinherison, the family would have been left with
out any capital seat at the decease of the 5th Baronet, now approaching
his 70th year. Therefore I suppose it was that Sir John, his son, who
had been knighted (as the eldest son of a Baronet), in January, 1696,
and had married in the same year the beautiful Alice Monnoux,
daughter of Sir Humphrey Monnoux, Baronet, entered into agreement
for the purchase of Bramshill, which was conveyed to him in May,
1700. It has continued to the present time the possession and
residence of the Cope family.
Having thus deduced the descent of Bramshill from the eleventh
century to recent times, it remains to give some description of the
architecture of the house. It is clear that the Foxleys had, and most
probably erected, a mansion here, for, as I have noted. Sir John
Foxley dates his will thence — " Datum apud Bromeshall " — in 1378; and
I have little doubt that the house was erected, or much added to, by
his father, Thomas Foxley, who, as I have stated, p. 6, formed
the park, and who, from the existing remains of the house, may be
assumed to have been the builder. For considerable remains of that

''¦'The only trace ofthe ownership ofthe Henleys existing at Bramshill are the letters
R. H, B., on the upright marble sun-dial affixed to the north-west front of the house.

i6
mansion still exist, and are worked-up into the present house. During
some repairs of the great stair-case, some years ago, in which it was
necessary to strip the plaster from the wall, I found beneath it a wide
four-centred arch, which had been cut through in order to form the
lobby above, and the door into the Chapel-room. And, in making a
passage from the hall to the rooms in the southern wing or tower, in
1868, we had to cut through a wall 4 feet 9 inches thick, whereas the
general thickness of the walls of the present house is about 2 feet, or
two bricks and a half. And the cellars beneath this portion of the
house are of an entirely different character to the vaults under the rest
of the house. The ribs of the groining have a very peculiar moulding,
which dies in a remarkable manner into the pier, while the vaults
elsewhere under the house are quite plain and without moulded ribs.

CELLARS UNDER SOUTHERN WING.

Section Ancient Cellars.

\M

IS full size.

4 inch =1 foot.

Vaulting Ancient Cellars,

i8
I have recorded (page 6) that Thomas Foxley was Constable of
Windsor Castle, and was appointed an inspector of the workmen there.
At that very time the works at Windsor were being carried on by
William of Wykeham ; and I have observed upon the friendship
existing between Thomas Foxley and his son, and the great Prelate.
It is not a little remarkable that these older cellar-vaults at Bramshill
are exactly similar to the vaulting and piers of the rooms now used as
the steward's room and servants' hall at Windsor. So that it seems
probable that Thomas Foxley exactly copied the work of his friend, the
Bishop of Winchester, in constructing his house at Bramshill ; or, as
has been suggested, that the Constable of Windsor Castle may have
actually employed the same workmen on his Hampshire mansion, when
they had finished their work at the Royal residence.
Many other portions of thick wall remain, as well in the western
wing or tower, as in other portions of the present house near, the hall.
At the opposite end of the building, too, the entrance from the
garden to the court inside the house seems to have been the gate-house
of the older mansion. For, not to insist on the four-centred arches
which are found in other parts of the Jacobean house, though of a
rather different character, the mouldings of both the arches are external
only, shewing that the porch to the garden, as well as the passage
across the court, has been built on to these arches.
The architect of the present house is said to have been John
Thorpe ; and the tradition is confirmed by the similarity of the work
here to his known erections. Notably to Hatfield, which is in many
respects a sort of expansion of the idea of Bramshill. How much of
the old house of the Foxleys still existed when Lord Zouche bought
the estate, or in what condition it then was, cannot now be ascertained.
It had, probably, or part of it, been occupied by Lord Daubeney's
"servus" (steward?), Richard Pendilton ; and, as it is described as a
" lodge " in 1595, the greater part of it was most likely irremediably
out of repair, if not in ruins. Yet, such as it was, Thorpe, when
employed by Lord Zouche to build a mansion, did not destroy but
utilised what remained.

19
How he did this, and how his adaptation of parts of the old
mansion was carried out, so far as it can be discovered, my talented
friend, Mr. Fergusson, the well-known Architect, permits me to give
in his own words, after careful examination of the house :
"The niain features of the old house seem to me clear within
very narrow limits. From the existing remains it is easy to see that
the old house was built round a court-yard, measuring about lOO
feet by 80. This I look upon as certain, as all the houses — mansions
— of that age, from Windsor Castle downwards, through all the
colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and all the mansions that still
remain, between Edward IV. and Elizabeth, without any exception,
so far as I know, were so planned ; and in nine cases out of ten,
the Hall was situated on the side of the court facing the entrance,
and, like all the principal rooms, was lighted from the inside.
"Assuming this, for the nonce, the arrangement of the Hall side of
the old house at Bramshill is easily made out. The Hall is still entire,
but my impression is that the present ' Dais ' is too narrow ; that the
wall at the upper end does not stand on the original foundation ; but
was 4 to 6 feet further back.*'-' Beyond this would be the withdrawing
room, flush I believe with your terrace-front, and to the southward
from it, the Chapel, under the present one : but, whether attached to
the parlour, or separated from it by a corridor, can only be ascertained
by examination. At the opposite extremity of this wing was the
kitchen, with the usual hatches and serving room, between it and
the Hall. " The present long gallery I believe to be built on the foundation
of the entrance side of the court facing the Hall ; and between it and
the kitchen were the offices — the larders, pantries, bake-house, brew-
house, store-room, and all the accommodation for the service of a
country-house in the days in which it was built — and opposite it the
living-rooms of the family, extending between the Hall wing and the
guest-chamber, in the north-east or entrance front.
" The only remaining question is to know how far Thorpe used the
old foundations for his new erection. My impression is that in the
north-west front, the present outer wall is raised on the inner-court
''¦' A strong confirmation of this surmise exists in the fact that the large arch leading
from the hall to the stair-case, p. 1 6 (now walled up), does not come down to its spring
on the terrace side, but has been cut across by the present wall ; the original one having
evidently been, as Mr. Fergusson suggests, a few feet further out.

20
wall,*'-' and that in the opposite front the wall of the living-rooms was
raised on what is now the terrace wall, as is shown in the tracing.*'-'
" This would make the court of the same proportions nearly as
those of Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, erected in the reign of Edward IV.,
92 feet by 118 (see Britton's 'Architectural Antiquities,' vol. ii., p. 87)
and less would not, I conceive, be tolerated in a house of the period.
" By far the most instructive example, however, for a study of
the peculiarities of Bramshill is. that of the contemporary buildings at
Hatfield. The original house there was built by Morton, Bishop of
Ely, in the reign of Edward IV. It was, of course, built round a court
of very nearly the same dimension as those at Oxburgh and Bramshill.
A good deal of money was spent on it, either in Elizabeth's reign or by
Sir Robert Cecil, in an attempt to adapt it to modern fashion ; but
apparently without success, as the latter cut the Gordian Knot by
pulling down the buildings on three sides of the court, and adapting
the fourth — the Hall side — for stables. This, as you know, is now
standing ; and a careful plan was made before it was pulled down,
and is now in the library at Hatfield. The new house was then
erected on another site, at some distance from the old, and where
there was nothing to hamper the design.
" At Bramshill another scheme was adopted. There the same
architect attempted to convert an ' inside ' house — one surrounding a
court — into an outside one — one in which all the windows looked
outwards — by pushing back the two subordinate wings till they nearly
met. " The curious part of the business is why he did not do this
completely, so that one central wall would have sufficed. It is difficult
now to see why this was not done. Perhaps it was that a new
invention is never, at once, pushed to its logical conclusion. Some
superstition may have shrunk from the idea of a house wholly without
an internal court ; or it may have been that he wanted a site for a
new Chapel ; or to use some old foundations. In fact, there may have
been fifty reasons or caprices which led to the present arrangement, on
which it would now be idle to speculate. All that can be said is that
on the whole it is a very tolerably successful transformation, but only as
a transition example, that, so far as I know, was never attempted
before, nor copied afterwards ; but exactly therein lies its exceptional
interest. Indeed, it would be easier to write a volume regarding it,
'"¦'Some breaks and straight joints in this wall seem to confirm this supposition.
They may have been windows looking into the court,
'=¦' See Plan I.

Pi
HWu

OSo

B H bO zo <! O Iz;<:1-1

22
At present, however, the tracing*'' herewith will, perhaps, suffice to
explain more clearly than this letter the information I intend to
convey." To this exhaustive reconstruction, as it were, of the old mansion
of the Foxleys, and explanation of the use Thorpe made of its remains,
I can only add my thanks ; and the statement that on a second and
yet more careful inspection of the buildings, Mr. Fergusson found
much to confirm his original opinion.
I will now endeavour to give some architectural particulars of the
present house. It is in the style usually called Elizabethan or
Jacobean ; but to which, I think, the name of English Renaissance
might more fitly be given, seeing that it existed from the reign of
Henry VIIL to that of Charles I. To the history and development
of this style full justice has, as yet, scarcely been done. Inferior to
Continental Renaissance in delicacy of execution, yet possessing a
certain vigorous boldness of its own, in conception and detail, it seems
to merit more careful attention than it has received ; and a perfect
account of the style might be constructed from a careful study of the
architecture and details, not only of such houses as Bramshill, but of
additions to Churches, and of sepulchral monuments.
Bramshill was begun, probably, not long after Lord Zouche
acquired the property in 1605. It was completed, externally at least,
in 161 2 ; which date is on the ornamental heads of some of the
stack-pipes, as are the initials E. Z. [Edward Zouche] on others.
It is traditionally said to have been intended as a residence for
Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. It is not improbable
that some idea of purchasing it from Lord Zouche for this object may
have existed. He was much about the Court. But there is not, so far
as I know, any documentary evidence connecting the Prince with
Bramshill. I use the word " documentary " in the usual sense of
written on parchment or paper. For there is a Prince's helmet now in
the Hall, which has the Prince of Wales' plume and the Star of the
"¦'See Plan L

23

Garter enamelled on it. And, as I shall have occasion to point out,
the crowning ornament of the great front has been considered to
represent, and probably does represent, the Prince's Feathers and
Coronet. But the death of the Prince at the close of the year 1 6 1 2 —
the year Bramshill was completed — renders it certain that it never was
his residence. The general plan of the house may be roughly said to be an
H the transverse stroke being much elongated; or, perhaps more
accurately, two Ts, one being reversed — |  1. It is built of brick,
with quoins, mullions, and dressings of Headington stone. This, so
perishable in the damp atmosphere of Oxford, has lasted wonderfully
in the dry air of North Hampshire ; though it now occasionally
shews marks of its endurance of more than two centuries and a
half of rough weather. Extensive as the house now is, it was
originally larger. Fuller, writing probably in 1645 ^t Basing (where
he was during the siege), says of it : — " Next Basing, Bramsell, built
by the last Lord Zouch, in a bleak and barren place, was a stately
structure, especially before part thereof was defaced with a casual
fire." *'-' The part defaced seems to have been two projecting
wings, which extended from the south-west front.
These wings are clearly shewn in a plan of the park,
dated 1699, which, though the house is necessarily
represented on a small scale, shews correctly the
outline of the building. Of the date or particulars
of the fire no evidence or tradition exists ; it may
] irobably have occurred during Lord Antrim's
-ccupancy, which would account for the great
lifference in the price at which he acquired it, and
.he price for which he disposed of it. I presume
that these wings continued "defaced" during the
time it was owned by the Henleys ; and that they were removed
soon after Bramshill was acquired by my family, when the house

04 FT. TO THE INCH.

(I) Worthies, i., 40 r.

24
appears to have undergone repair. For the initials J-c^- [John and
Alice Cope] are on the heads of the stack-pipes of the present
terminations of those wings, with the date 1703. A writer in the
"Topographer," dating in 1782, says that thirty-four rooms were
burnt.*'-' In plans of the house taken in 1763 there is no indication of
these wings, and the south-western front terminates as now. There is
a very accurate plan, however, marked " Plan of the foundation of
rooms pulled down in the front of Bramshill House," and noted as
"taken in 1766," which shews exactly the position and extent of these
wings. They extended about sixty feet beyond the present front ; and
it appears, from this plan, that the inner sides were not truly parallel,
but, on the principle adopted by Mansard at Versailles, and by Wren
(or whoever designed the garden front) at New College, diverged as
they extended from the front.
Some traces of these wings still exist. In the vegetable-garden
are the remains of a pier, now partly hidden by a buttress, at the exact
distance to which the western wing extended from the front ; and its
straight joints are visible in the wall above. It evidently formed a pier
similar to those opposite the terminations of the present fronts. And the
wall on the other side, connecting the southern turret-house with the
house, which originally must, so far as that wing extended, have formed
the lower part of the wall of that wing, is capped with the rounded
coping-bricks which cap the opposite wall, till it reaches the point to
which the wing extended. From that point to the house it is capped
with stone, of which a plentiful supply was, no doubt, at hand from the
ddbris of the destroyed wings.
I may note that a portion of the inside wall of the southern wing
is represented on the plan, as of thickness equal to, if not greater than,
that of the existing walls which it joined ; clearly shewing, I think, that
the old mansion of the Foxleys extended in that direction.
''¦'Vol. ii., p. 287 : — "On the right of Hertford Bridge is Brafnshill, standing on a
knoll, looking like a litde town, tho' 34 rooms were burnt some years ago." This must
be understood to apply to Fuller's " casual fire," more than a century and a half before.

25
What rooms these wings contained cannot now be ascertained.
There is some reason to suppose that the Chapel, either Thorpe's (as at
Hatfield) or the original Foxley one, was in the southern wing. Some
fragments of ruby glass were dug up on the site some years ago. At
any rate there must have been much ornamental work of good character
in these wings. For, in the year 1858, when making a drain on the
north-west side of the house, the workmen came on the foundations of
walls, which I directed to be followed and taken up. It was evident
that a building (stables or offices) had stood there ; and that the walls
had been built — or the foundations laid — with fragments of the wings
which were taken down. For in these foundations were found many
pieces of Headington stone, wrought with very good Renaissance
mouldings ; fragments of window-heads, mullions, and cornices ; and a
piece with mouldings on both sides, which must have formed part of a
screen, or the architrave of an arch. Some of these bore evident marks
of fire. Subsequently, in pulling down a partition wall which had
been built across a cellar, we found the panels carved with reliefs of an
Elephant, a Camel, a Boar, and a Lion, executed in a very spirited
style, which I have preserved by having them built into the wall under
the southern terrace-arches. These panels seem to have belonged to
the same screen, and with some others (too mutilated to be preserved)
must have formed a sort of " Bestiarium " in stone. They had been
used up, laid with brick, in building the cellar partition. And still more
recently we have found a mutilated female figure, in the costume of the
beginning of the XVII. century, in a Renaissance niche, supported on
a foliated bracket. The whole is most beautifully executed. She
holds in her left hand a torch ; and above and below there has been
an inscription, of which only the word et remains above, and the
letters lt below the figure.
The central compartment of the south-western, or principal front
is constructed of stone,*'' and all its ornaments and details are as
sharp as they -were the day they left the hand of the carver. The
'¦¦' It is I believe Ketton stone, or some stone of similar quality.
E,

26

design consists in the lower portion of a porch or cloister of three
arches, reached by a broad flight of steps ; in the centre rises an
ornamental erection having double pilasters of the Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian style, with ornamental niches between them, rising storey
above storey, to the top of the building. In the first floor, above
the central arch of the porch, is a most graceful oriel window boldly
bracketed out. Above this are two arches, which, though now stopped
and plastered, were originally open or intended to be so, whether as
windows or to contain statues is uncertain. They are represented
as open in a view of this front, forming one of a set of elevations
of the fagades of the house taken about 1 760 ; and they are now
closed only with thin brickwork, as may be seen in the attic at their
back. Above these the central part terminates in an ornament
which has been thought to represent the Feathers and Coronet of
the Prince of Wales. That part which seems to represent the
Prince's plume is, it is true, not unlike ornamental work occurring in
Renaissance decoration of the period ; but the Coronet is very distinct.

IJITLTU LJU'LTLTLrL!

i iNCH= 1 POOT.
And as Queen Victoria when she honoured Bramshill with a visit in
1845, and the Prince of Wales when encamped in the Park here
during the Autumn Manoeuvres of 1871, considered the sculpture to
represent the Prince's Badge and Crown, it may be assumed that
it does so ; since no one could decide with such certainty on their
Royal bearings as themselves. This then furnishes almost the only
confirmation of the tradition that Bramshill was built for Henry,
Prince of Wales.

27
The arches, pilasters, and niches, and the general treatment of
this front are essentially Renaissance ; and yet the open-work parapet
of the porch, and the panelling under the oriel window, are hardly
removed from the perpendicular Gothic :

\

7

X

L-

SCALE i = 1 FOOT,

\

^

So long did that style keep its hold on English Architecture, and so
closely did the expiring and succeeding styles impenetrate each other.
But ornamental and elaborate as this front is, the making it
the principal fagade or entrance to the house was an afterthought

28
of the Architect. This we shall see more fully, when I come to
describe the opposite (or north-eastern) front. But here I must
observe that the roof of the cloister-porch cuts across and blocks
the heads of the Hall windows : a clear proof that when those
windows were designed, and indeed constructed, the cloister-porch
was not contemplated. Shorter windows, with wooden mullions*'-'
(probably because protected from the weather by the porch), were
substituted ; but the stone heads of the original windows remain.
It cannot be denied that the removal of the projecting wings,
and the inferiority of the eighteenth century work which has refaced
these terminations, give to the sides of this front, on a close view,
a bald and tower-like aspect ; at a distance the extent and mass of
the front, and the deep shadows formed by the successive breaks
of the recesses on each side of the central compartment, have a
most picturesque and indeed magnificent appearance.
For some years after the projecting wings were removed this
front remained in a naked and unfinished condition, as shewn in some
views in my possession. A hideous buttress was added at the western
angle, as may be seen in Neale's view, on some alarm of subsidence
or insecurity of that wing. This idea increasing, it was pulled down
and rebuilt by Sir John Cope about the year 1820. It was found,
however, that the walls which were thought insecure were, from
the hardness of the brick and the goodness of the mortar, extremely
difficult to pull down ; and I need scarcely say that the wing thus
rebuilt has exhibited more insecurity and decay than any older
portion of the building ; and that I have been obliged, in more
ways than one, to contribute to its stability, while endeavouring to
bring it somewhat into harmony with the older work. The ornamental
parapet was continued along these wings by Sir John Cope ; and the
chimneys, which were of the most hideous Georgian stumpiness, have
been rebuilt in accordance with those in the older parts of the house.
'"¦' They are the only windows of the original date of the house which have wooden
mullions.

29
The north-eastern front, I have already observed, Thorpe
originally intended to make the principal one, or that by which
access was to be obtained to the House. He, no doubt, found the
gate-house of the old Foxley mansion standing, and at first proposed
to continue it as the entrance to the house. With this view he threw
out, or rather built on, the semi-octagonal porch with the bay-window
above ; crowned the gate-house with the stepped gable and obelisks,
and in a niche placed a statue of Lord Zouche ; *'-' capping the whole
with an open-work or pierced globe. In this state it would have
resembled, though with larger proportions, the principal front of
some other of our Jacobean mansions. We know not now what
induced him or his employer. Lord Zouche, to change his plan, and
to make the opposite front his principal one. Whether it was the
want of sun and play of light on this north-eastern side; or the
superior beauty of the view from the other front, — " Looking out
from its eyry of dark firs," over the expanse of country between it
and the North Downs, — it was a happy thought.
As now existing this front has, besides the great bay in the
centre, two other bay windows, one on each side. When the architect
intended this for the principal front, he designed (if he did not
construct) projecting wings, similar to those he built on the south
west front. For, in forming the beds of the present flower-garden,
foundations of former buildings were discovered ; and a careful
examination of the external wall of the house discovers evident
traces, by straight joints, etc., of buildings having joined it at right
angles. A door on the first floor which led, or was intended to
lead, to the northern wing is clearly perceptible ; and the set-off
which runs along the north-west front does not return, but continues
along the external wall of the flower-garden (doubtless the basement
of the northern wing) for 6i feet, where it stops. But the clear
proof that such wings were intended — and probably intended only —
''•'This statue is said much to resemble the picture of Lord Zouche by My tens
at Hampton Court.

30
is that the toothings at the northern angle to receive the projecting
wall of the wing remained until the year 1853, when I had that
angle quoined with Bath-stone quoins to match the other angles of
the house. Had the intention of making this the principal approach to the
house been adhered to, access would have been obtained through
the ornamental arch called the Postern, in the wall separating the
Green-court from the Park, under the porch and through the old
gate-house of the Foxleys to the internal court. The arches of this
gate-house are four-centred ; *'-' the doors are of the date of the
house, and of excellent character. This entrance must have been
imposing ; the window of the old Chapel being opposite. The
quadrangle is now cut off by a transverse wall, and narrowed by
the erection of passages, which I shall have to speak of when I
come to describe the interior.
Before we leave this front I may mention that in restoring the
Postern (which had sunk considerably, but has been rebuilt, stone
for stone) we found that the side arches, long bricked up, had been
open with a balustrade exactly similar to the side arches in the
principal front. The marks of the "tie" of the handrail of the
balustrade were very apparent in the sides of the arches. I could
have wished to restore this arrangement ; but a three-feet baluster
would have afforded scant protection to pleasure ground and garden
in this nineteenth century. It would seem that the approach from
the Postern to the house was originally uninterrupted by the transverse
wall ; for the present wall between the Green-court and the flower
garden bears the date 1675.
''¦' But rather different and of an earlier type than the perpendicular doorways used
by Thorpe in the house. The existence of these two arches is a clear proof, I
think, that we have here the old gate-house of the Foxley mansion. Having made
the arches of his postern and of the porch semicircular, the Architect would surely
have made his arches of entrance through the house semicircular and concentric, had
he not resolved to " use up " what he found existing.

F, M. Good, Photo.

Woodburytype.

NORTH-WESTERN FRONT.

31
The north-western front, though plainer than the other fagades,
.s yet very picturesque from its length and mass, and its many gables.
It is the only side of the house which has been at all altered in its
aspect. It had, I presume, a range of lofty, muUioned windows above,
and seated on, the set-off which runs along this front. Of these
one only remains at the western end, distinguished from the other
windows of the house by its more massive mullions, and by the
rebate for external shutters. They, no doubt, lighted the kitchen
and kitchen-offices, which still occupy this front, and which were
lofty, and (as regards the kitchen) probably vaulted. But in the
alterations and repairs at the beginning of last century, the entresol,
which already existed at the northern corner, was continued throughout
this front, affording additional rooms and convenience ; but by the
insertion of Queen Anne sashed windows detracting much from the effect
of this side of the house. The extent of the original entresol may
be traced by the mullioned windows, and by the drip-stone which
runs round the northern projection, and returns as far as that entresol
reached. The tall windows of the basement were then, with the
one exception I have noted, done away ; and unseemly windows,
with flimsy mullions and transoms of wood, were inserted. These
transoms have been replaced in stone in the year 1875.
But the south-eastern or Terrace-front is perhaps the great
architectural beauty of Bramshill. It extends, broken by four pro
jecting bays, 194 feet, and is terminated at each end by a bold
projection, supported, on the terrace side, by two ornamental arches.
The elevation of the Terrace and of this fagade above the adjoining
part ; the play of light, broken by the projecting bays ; the beauty
of the pierced parapet, unequalled in any other example of EngHsh
Renaissance ; and the lightness of the terminating arches, give to
this front, when viewed from any external point, a special charm.
While the extensive prospect it commands, embracing Aldershot, the
Hog's-back, the North Downs, and a vast extent of landscape, makes
it as charming to look from as to look at.

32
But turning from its beauties to architectural details, I may note
that in making some repairs we found that above the arches at each
end there had originally been a four-light window. These must
have very much lightened the effect of the wall, now altogether
blank, which these arches bear. The plaster soffit of one of these
windows was found built into the wall. It was of most excellent
design, and I had it carefully and accurately reproduced in stone,
and have used it as the frieze of a mantelpiece.*'-'
The door from the Terrace to the house with its four-centred,
or rather tangential arch, is true perpendicular Gothic in its
mouldings and general effect ; and supplies another proof of the
endurance of that style into the Renaissance in which this house
is built. The seats under the arches are apparently co-eval with the
house, and are most curious in design and execution.
In three old drawings of this front, in my possession, the
balustrade is represented as running the whole length of the Terrace ;
whereas it terminates at each end by the second panel raking down
to a low pier. And modern illustrators of the house, Mr. Nash,
Mr. Shaw, and others, have in like manner represented the balustrade
as continuous from end to end. Yet there is every reason to doubt
whether such an arrangement ever existed. Some years ago I made
a most careful examination of the terminating piers, in which I was
assisted by an eminent London builder ; and we found the raking
balusters and terminal piers, apparently of the same age, stone and
workmanship ; and the curb of the terrace shews no trace whatever
of having been part of, or topped by, the sill of a balustrade. We were
convinced that the balustrade had always terminated as now, at a
short distance from the arches, leaving the greater part of the
Terrace open.
It would seem as if the old draughtsmen, like their modern
successors, observing that the balustrade goes entirely round the
''¦' See infra.

w

ilL\'

In

'" -*.„- /''?

':''^'l,l

n

ayifii

t

: )i

usm

vr/WTTTpM.

WT'n'

»

SCALE i = 1 FOOT
door from the terrace.

34
external sides of the outer Terrace, supplied what, in their estimation,
would have completed or ornamented the Terrace front. I cannot
agree with their suggestion : for I think that a high balustrade would
much dwarf the beautiful elevation and stint the noble proportion of
this front, when seen from the park, or from a distance.
Passing under the arches at the eastern end of the Terrace a
door gives access to the outer or Troco Terrace, which measures about
190 feet by 115 : It derives its name from the game of Troco formerly
played on it, and which was not materially different I believe from
" Lawn Billiards." The iron ring through which the balls were
driven still remains, and a few of the cues and balls with which it
was played are still in existence.
I have said that the entrance originally designed was by the
Posterns to the north-east front, and under the four-centred arches
of the old Foxley gate -house into a quadrangle. This court still
exists, though much shorn of its original proportions, by the con
struction of a passage on the ground floor and first floor. This
was built about the year 18 10, and is a great convenience ; on the
ground floor, as affording communication between the opposite ends
of the house without passing through the kitchen, &c., or crossing
the quadrangle, exposed to the weather ; and on the first floor by
giving separate access to the bed-rooms, which did not exist before
its erection : the bed-rooms being in pairs, one entered through the
other. At the same time that this passage was constructed, the
Chapel, the east-end of which formed the side of the quadrangle
opposite the entrance, was desecrated ; the passages being continued
to form lobbies, for which purpose a floor was inserted, cutting the
east window of the Chapel in two. For originally it ran through
two floors, its height being 30 feet. It had two entrances: one from the
inner (or terrace) hall at the foot of the great stair-case ; the
other from the quadrangle, by which, as I have been informed
by ancient people who remembered it in use, not only the

35

domestics, but even the dependants and tenants, had access to
the Chapel. But this Chapel seems to have been an afterthought, and no
part of the design of Thorpe's original building. For, as was
pointed out to me by an eminent architect, the set-off which runs
along the south-western wall of the quadrangle does not return
along the east wall of the Chapel, but dies into it. And I may add
that the mullions of this desecrated Chapel have a hollow in the
internal moulding which occurs nowhere else in the house, and

\tz

\

\

Mullions
T^ FULL SIZE.

Mullion of Old Chaoel Window.

which I believe is more common at a period later than that of the
erection of this house. For I may here remark that the section
of the mullions elsewhere throughout the building is peculiar and very
effective. The whole of the south-eastern and south-western sides of the
house are built on vaulted cellars. These vaults or groinings in
the south-western side spring from piers which divide the cellars
into what may be called two equal aisles. The arches between
the piers are pointed and four-centred. A glance at pages 16-17
will shew how much they differ from the earlier vaults of the old
Foxley Mansion.

i

100 110 IM

GROUND FLOOR.
The parts shaded lighter have been rebuilt or are additions.

37

O E, O TT IsT X) IFIjOOI?,.

A. . .

EXTERNAL PORCH.

B.

HALL.

0, 0, C.

STAIR-CASES.

D.

DINING-ROOM.

E.

RED DRAWING-ROOM.

F.

BILLIARD-ROOM.

G.

GARDEN-ROOM.

H.

HOUSEKEEPER'S-ROOM.

I, I, I, I, I, I. . PASSAGES.
K. . KITCHEN, &CA.
L. . . . SERVANTS' HALL.
M, IVI. . . PANTRIES.
N. - - . CLOAK-ROOM.
O. - . GUN-ROOM.
P. ¦ ¦ BED-ROOM.
Q, Q. - - TERRACE ARCHES.
R. . - . SMALL LIBRARIES.

38
To pass to the interior. The Hall is entered by a spacious
doorway, leading from' the central arch of the cloister porch. This
opens in front of the screens ; and I believe Bramshill is the first
instance of a departure from the older construction, where the principal
entrance to the Hall was invariably under the screens. The Hall
too, departing from more ancient examples, does not run through
two floors, and certainly it never did ; for the frieze and cornice
are evidently original, and the room above, with its stone chimney-
opening and stone-arched entrance to the Chapel is certainly
contemporary with the present arrangement of the house, and never
— in Thorpe's construction — formed part of the Hall below.
The screens are of most elegant design. The arches are of
a very remarkable curve : pointed, but the point is concealed by an
ornamental keystone, charged with an escutcheon. The frieze and
pilasters are charged with 92 shields. The three first are surmounted
by coronets ; and it has been suggested that they were intended to
contain the bearings of the three Baronies, Zouche, Cantalupe, and
St. Maur, which were vested in Lord Zouche, the builder of the
House. This screen had at some time been daubed over with a
dull stone-colour ; but in a strong light traces could be discovered
of brighter (and, no doubt. Heraldic) colours." At present the screens
are painted with the arms and descent of the Cope family : the
three coronetted shields bearing the arms of King Edward I. ; and
of the Bohuns and the Courteneys through whom (by the Mohuns)
they derive their descent from him. *'-'
In the spandrils of the arches are figures, habited in the costume
of the early part of the XVII. Century, of the four cardinal Virtues.
The Hall contains a collection of Arm.s and Armour.
In the arches of the carved Renaissance chimney-piece ar^
the arms of the four principal heiresses, Spencer, Mohun, Chaworth,
and Mordaunt, who have intermarried with the Cope family.
''¦' See Appendix ii.

39
At the upper end of the Hall is the dais, having the usual
bay at one end of it.
The glass in the window contains the arms, inscribed with their
names, of Royal visitors to Bramshill.
From the dais large double doors admit to the Terrace-hall, or
foot of the great stair-case. Crossing it the Dining-room is entered.
It is hung with Tapestry representing forest scenery in very subdued
colours. There is every reason to believe that this is of English
workmanship, and probably the produce of the looms of Mortlake.
A factory was, as is well known, established there by Charles I.,
under the direction of Sir Francis Crane. It has been suggested
that the Crane which occurs in some of the pieces of this tapestry
confirms the opinion that it is of Mortlake manufacture.
A door, opposite to that from the Terrace-hall, leads into the
Red Drawing-room. This room and the Billiard-room beyond it
were modernized about seventy years ago, and are almost the only
rooms which have undergone that process. As a part of this
modernization, the mullions of the windows had been replaced by
deal ones sanded over. They have within the last few years been
restored in stone.
The lofty " Queen Anne " doors of these rooms and of the suite
above them seem to have been inserted in the repairs of 1 700-3. I
believe that the original doorways had four-centred or tangential heads
such as that which leads from the Chapel-room to the Chapel ; or else
square headed with perpendicular mouldings ; such as that leading from
the Gallery to the passage, and several others in the lower part of the
house. In either case they must have been much lower than the present
lofty doorways, which, however, with their oak wainscot doors, har
monize well with the earlier work. When I re-opened the communication
from the Billiard-room to the Garden-room, which though marked as
open in the old plans, had been blocked up, we found one of the original
doorways, low, with a four-centred pointed arch, remaining in the
party-wall,

40
The Garden-room ends the suite of apartments on the ground-
floor. The panelling and the richly carved chimney piece were
brought from Moor-place farm ; and are certainly coeval with this
house ; the mouldings &c. being absolutely identical with some in
the house. Whether they were removed from it to the farm in the
Georgian period, when earlier work such as this was despised and
taken down, or whether they were the fittings of some of the many
rooms of the " defaced " wings, cannot now be ascertained. At any
rate they have found a fitting resting place here.
Before I describe the interior further, I may remark that it
seems that the inside of the house was not in all respects finished
for some time after the exterior was completed, and the house
inhabited. For my friend Mr. Harwood (whose kindness I have
already had occasion to record), communicated to me a painter's
bill for work done at Bramshill, beginning in May 1615 — which he
met with in the course of his labours as Assistant Commissioner
of the Historical MSS. Commission. This document is so curious
that I give it entire in the appendix.*'-' The windows (i.e., the
mullions), painted " faire white," with their casements " faire red,"
must have had a lively effect, if not such as one would in this
duller age appreciate. The petition which accompanies it is
hardly less curious. It shews that Peers of James I. time were
sometimes impecunious ; and that the art of dunning is no new
invention. A door from the Garden-room leads to the eastern arches of the
Terrace. Above this door externally are now placed four small
figures which seem to have formed part of a screen or other
Renaissance ornament.
A secret door in the Billiard-room leads to the original
entrance from the north-eastern front to the quadrangle, called
"the Pebble-court," no doubt from the flint pebbles with which
''•' See Appendix iii,

F. M. Good, Photo.

IVoodbiirytype.

TERRACE FRONT.

41

it was paved. A doorway, with a four-centred arch springing
from brackets, is characteristic of the style and deserves attention.
The door is original and very good.

l/^Al 1 1/^^ I l/^M

1/ — \i

c2)

1/ — \i

\_y

d

////y.

a

?¦

SCALE i"= 7 FOOT

¦^

b^

Several other doorways, square-headed but with perpendicular
mouldings, occur in this part of the house. The old entrance
through the two four-centred arches of the Foxley gate-house can
here be observed. The wall on one side has been thrown out in
modern times, narrowing this entrance to give more space for
the Housekeeper's-room, On the opposite side of the passage is
a staircase leading to the original entresol at the northern corner
of the house.

42

Here the effect of the Georgian passages— the "Red passage"
on this floor, and the "White passage" above — may be seen, and their
intrusion into the court may be appreciated. By stepping out from
the "Red passage" to the court, the window of the Chapel will be seen,
and opposite to it the tower-like effect
which still remains of the Foxley gate
house. Beyond the '' Red passage " are
the Kitchen and Domestic offices. A
good pointed doorway at the end of the
" Red passage" with an original (or early)
door, which still retains its hatch for
examining those who sought admittance,
leads to the north-western (and most
usual) entrance, and to the Servants'-
Hall and Pantry. Of course before the
" Red passage" was built this door opened
to the court. Returning through the
rooms already traversed the foot of the
great stair-case is reached. The stair-case
is spacious, as was generally the case
in houses of the period. It had been
sadly mutilated. A puny Georgian banister and hand-rail (a
corresponding part of which still exists on the inside of the red cloth
doors) had replaced the Jacobean or Renaissance standards and balusters;
which no doubt, as at Hatfield, Crewe, and other great houses of the
date, originally decorated this stair-case. The present ones were
brought here from Eversley Manor House. As they bore marks of
older mortices, and of a previous removal, it may be that they were
relegated from this house to Eversley, and are now restored to
their original position. But however this may be, they are,
if not the original standards and balusters of this stair-case,
of the same period as the house, or of a date very little subsequent
to it.

ITT i~n: rn — i

43
The lobby above, connecting the great Drawing-room and the
Chapel-room, is that for the construction of which the great arch, in
the right hand wall ascending the stair-case, had been cut through :
as I have noted pp. i6 and i8.
On the left at the top of the stair-case the great Drawing-room
is entered. This noble room, whose dimensions very nearly approach
the perfection of architectural proportion — the double cube — strikes
every one who enters it with admiration. The ceiling is extremely
beautiful, and is enriched with pendants. The frieze of the cornice,
representing vine branches with leaves and bunches of grapes, is of
most delicate design. It has been thought that the chimney-piece in
this room, being so purely Italian, and differing so much from mere
Renaissance, must be of a later date than the other parts of the
room and of the house. But there can be scarcely a doubt that
it is the work of the same architect. It consists of two storeys:
the lower Doric ; the upper Ionic ; both are treated, it is said, after
the manner of Vignola. The shafts of the pillars are of red variegated
marble, as are the frieze of the upper order, and the pattern between
the Ionic columns. The rest is white marble. The ornamented
open-work pediment at the top, and the ornament just mentioned
are true Renaissance, and, I think, prove the contemporary date
of the whole work. This is still further shewn by the way in which
the coloured marbles are brought down into the hearth ; and no
doubt the hearth-back and the tall brass fire-dogs were, as well as
the chimney-piece, designed by the architect of the house.
The panelling of this room is of an elaborate and beautiful
pattern, which, if not unique, is certainly uncommon in English
Renaissance. The Tapestries with which this room is hung are very fine
and of peculiar interest. They were worked from cartoons by Rubens,
and executed at Brussels under his supervision or direction. It seems
that the great painter was anxious to obtain a collection of marbles
from Sir Dudley Carleton, then English Ambassador at the Hague,

First Floor, Bramshill, 32 feet to the inch

45

E^iiasa? E^LOOS,.

A, . .

CHAPEL.

B. . .

- ' CHAPEL-ROOM.

C, 0, C.

STAIR-CASES.

D.

- GREAT DRAWING-ROOM

E,

- LIBRARY.

F.

GALLERY.

G, G.

- BED-ROOMS.

H. -

GREEN BED-CHAMBER.

1, 1. •

PASSAGES.

K.

DRESSING-ROOM,

L. . .

- BOUDOIR.

46
and to give him in, exchange some of his own pictures, and a set
of tapestries worked from his designs. In a letter to Sir Dudley
dated 26 May, 161 8, he thus writes of these very tapestries;
" Toccante le Tapezzerie .... Mandara a v. e. tutte le
misure del mio cartone della storia di Decius Mus, Console Romano,
che si devovo per la vittoria del popolo Romano, ma bisognara
scrivere a Brusselles per averle giuste, havendo io consigniato ogni
cosa al maestro del lavoro."
"In respect of the tapestries  I will send your
Excellency the whole measurements of my cartoons of the History
of Decius Mus, the Roman Consul, who devoted himself for the
success of the Roman people ; but I shall write to Brussels to have
them correct, having given everything to the master of the works."
Sir Dudley Carleton did not, however, eventually obtain these
tapestries, having preferred a set representing the History of Scipio.
It is impossible now to ascertain how they found their way to
Bramshill. Whether Sir Dudley passed them on to his brother
diplomatist. Lord Zouche ; whether he obtained them for the Cope
family, whose near relation he was *'' ; or whether they were purchased
by Sir Jbhn Cope, the 5th Baronet, during his long residence on
the Continent in the XVII. Century, must be matter of conjecture.
It will be observed that though the tapestries very nearly fit
the spaces in which they are hung at Bramshill, they do not fit
exactly ; and consequently a strip of a different tapestry has been
inserted at each end of the room, to make out the width required
to fill the walls.
The first subject of the series is at the further end of the room
on entering from the staircase : " Decius Consulting the Augurs."
'¦•' Frances, Lady Cope, the wife of the first Baronet, daughter of Rowland Lytton, of
Knebworth, was first cousin of Sir Dudley, her mother having been a Carleton. There
was an earlier connection : Elizabeth Cope, widow of Edward Cope, of Hanwell, and
mother of the first Baronet, having re-married George Carleton, of Walton-on-Thames,
uncle of Sir Dudley.

47
" Decius, clad in armour, over which is cast the paludamentum,
stands before the priests, awaiting the result of their divinations :
one of the latter, habited in splendid sacerdotal robes, is by the
altar ; and the second priest stands on his right holding the entrails
of the victim ; a stag lies on the ground in front ; on the left are
two men bringing forward a white heifer." This has been engraved
by Schmuzer. The next in order is on the adjacent wall: " Decius taking leave
of the Senate before engaging in the war against the Samnites."
On an elevated platform are six Senators, before whom, at the
foot of the steps, stand the two Consuls, Decius and Manlius. The
former holds in his right hand a small statue of Mars, which itself
holds a little figure of Victory. Both Consuls carry in their left
hands the staves of office. Behind them is a standard-bearer, with
the banner inscribed S. P. Q. R. ; and in the distance is a view of
Rome. This, I believe, has never been engraved ; but I possess an
admirable and accurate jsencil drawing from it, by a talented lady
in this neighbourhood, now deceased.
The third subject is on the wall dividing the room from the
stair-case : " The Death of Decius." " In the midst of the battle
and confusion of an obstinate and sanguinary conflict, is seen the
noble Decius falling backwards from his plunging charger, pierced
by a spear in the neck — while one of his valiant troops, mounted
on a spirited piebald horse, is avenging his death. Among the dead
and dying, with which the field is covered, is one lying prostrate
on his back in the foreground, with a spear broken in his breast."
Engraved by G. A. Miiller.
The fourth subject of the series is on the adjoining wall :
"The Obsequies of Decius." "The dead soldier is extended on a
couch, on each side of which are several of his companions in
arms. Among those on the left, is a subaltern, rudely holding a
female by the skirts of her dress with one hand, and a captive

48
by the hair of the head with the other. The former has an infant
in her arms and another by her side ; near them is a second
soldier dragging forward a young woman by the hair of her head ;
three prisoners lie bound in front, and the rich spoils of victory,
consisting of gold and silver vases, etc., are distributed on the right.
The head of the couch is decorated with trophies, composed of arms,
banners, and the heads of enemies." *'-' Engraved in a large plate
by Adam Bartsch.
The Cartoons, " done for patterns to be executed in [this]
tapestry," were sold in the collection of M. Bertells of Brussels for
1500 florins. Two of them were brought to England, and were
exhibited at the European Gallery in 179 1. I have been unable to
trace what has become of these cartoons. Rubens' original sketches
for the first and last subjects of these tapestries are in the Munich
Gallery ; and a finished study of the captives who lie bound in the
front of the last subject was in the collection of Sir Abraham Hume,
and was exhibited at the British Gallery in 1829.
Rubens seems to have been fond of the subject and of his
designs for it ; for later in life he painted in oils six pictures of the
History of Decius, which are now in the Liechtenstein Gallery,
near Vienna. In this set he reproduced exactly the first, third,
and fourth of these tapestries.
Of these designs a critic observes that they are "most striking,
bold, vigorous, and rapid " ; *^-' and another that " they do honour
to the name of the master,  the creative genius
of Rubens reigns throughout, in the grandeur and simplicity of the
composition." *3-'
It is worthy of notice that Rubens, in his correspondence with
Sir Dudley Carleton states that the tapestries — or his designs for
''¦' Smith's Catalogue, part ii., pp. 101-103. The prints and drawing from these
tapestries are in the first white room. See infra.
'^' Murray's Handbook of Southern Germany, p. r72.
<3' Smith's Catalogue.

49
them — were to be purchased by measure : " Le Tapezzerie che si
comprano a misura."
In the two bays of this room are two tables which contain panels
of early English needlework ; it would appear from the costume of
the figures not to be later than the first quarter of the XVII. Century.
Passing through the door opposite to that of entrance, the
Library is reached. This room contains about 5000 volumes ; less
than half the number of books which constitute the valuable collection
here. Of the "book rarities" I need not say anything here, as I
propose to give a list of the earliest printed and most curious in a
separate form.
The ceiling and frieze of the cornice of this room, though not
quite so elaborate as those of the drawing-room just passed through,
are very beautiful, and admirably treated. The chimney-piece reaching
to the ceiling is in white and black marble. It was originally
heightened with gold, of which the traces in the mouldings, etc.,
are still apparent.
A door leads from the Library to the Gallery, said to be the
longest in England in a Jacobean house. Its dimensions are 127
feet, 6 inches, by 20 feet, 6 inches.
The ceiling and frieze of the cornice are of excellent Renaissance
design. The Gallery is now panelled with deal, painted to represent
pollard oak. The mouldings, much later in character than those
of the panelling in other parts of the house, prove it to be more
recent. This panelling extended across the segmental arch, leading
into the great central bay-window. But on removing the panelling
for some repairs, I found this arch so ornamental and characteristic
of the style that I had it laid open.*'-' I then ascertained that the
whole of the wall-surface of the Gallery had been brought up to
'"•'The arms in the spandrils of the arch of the central bay are those of King
James I., in whose reign Bramshill was built; and of Edward, Lord Zouch, the builder
of it. H,

so
a fine face of plaster ; no doubt intended for wall-decoration or
painting. I suppose at some period the plaster was thought to
look bare and cold ; the money perhaps required for having the
walls painted, or the ability to paint them, was wanting ; and the
panelling was set up to cover their nakedness. I should attribute
the panelling to the repairs of 1700-3.
But the chimney-piece is original, and both it and its frieze (in
fire-stone) are good specimens of Renaissance. The grate-back
however has a history. It bears the Anchor, entwined with a cable,
surrounded with the Garter, and surmounted by a Coronet. These
appear to be the official badges of James, Duke of York (afterwards
James 1 1.), as Lord High Admiral. How or whence it found its
way to Bramshill, I know not. But in examining or altering a
drain, some years ago, it was found, face -down, used as a covering
slab. In this stoneless country, anything that could cover the drain
was used ; and a hearth-back, ejected from the house, no doubt
when grates and sea-coal came into fashion, came to hand, was
laid down and buried.
I believe that no sufficient explanation has, as yet, been given
of the purpose and use of the very spacious galleries in houses of
this and earlier date. When the country (especially such a wild
heath country as that surrounding Bramshill) was sparsely inhabited,
and when wheeled carriages were unknown, or never used as means
of short transit, it is impossible to suppose that galleries were
required for balls, or such like entertainments. Nor is it conceivable
that they were intended for picture-galleries; for picture collecting was
unknown in England when this house was built.*'-' Nor had as yet
"Some daemon whispered, ' Visto, have a taste.'"
It has been suggested that they were meant as places of refuge
in case of an attack, where valuables might be carried, and where
the weaker part of the household — the women and children — might
''¦' The first private picture-collector in England was Thomas, Earl of Arundel, temp.
Charles I.

51
retire for safety. But not to mention that all danger of such attacks
had ceased, in the south of England at least, before this house was
built, this Gallery on three of its sides and part of a fourth*'-* looks
to the outside, and is therefore the apartment most exposed to
attack and least fitted for safety or defence.
But I do not know whether it throws light on the purpose of
the Gallery to mention that it had originally strong double doors
separating it from the rest of the house. The traces of a door,
opening with two battants, are very evident inside the door leading
from the Library, by the marks of the hinges remaining, and by
the bolt-holes in the floor and in the soffit above. Outside the
secret door leading from the Gallery to the bed-rooms are the hooks
which supported a second door ; and their size and the stoutness
of the bolt-staples remaining shew that this door must have been
a very strong one.
As tradition has associated Bramshill with the story told by
Rogers in " Ginevra," and by Haines Bailey in the " Mistletoe
Bough," I suppose that, in describing the Gallery, I must make
some mention of the chest in which the " lost bride " is said to
have been entombed. The chest to which the tradition applied
was removed from Bramshill by the widow of Sir Denzil Cope,
who died in 1812, to whom he had bequeathed his personal property.
I have often spoken to those who had seen the chest ; one, a
woman of comely proportions, told me that she had laid down in
it, and had so proved the possibility of the bride's disaster. But
the event never took place at Bramshill. No lady of my family
ever died on her bridal day nor for years after it. And I have
been informed, by one who knew him well, that Sir Richard Cope,
whose memory must have reached back to the first quarter of the
''•' Originally there was a four-light window at each end of the fourth side. They
are now blocked, see p. 32. The mullions of the one at the northern end remain
on the outside.

52
last century,*'-' scouted the story, and never heard the mention of
it with patience. But relics never disappear. Another chest, which
probably no human being ever entered, has taken the place of the
genuine one in the fancies of house-visitors and the narration of
servants ; and has now been immortalized as " The Chest " in the
pictures of a distinguished photographer. Whence then came the
legend, and when did it arise? I do not know when the story of the
bride and the chest was first attributed to Bramshill. At a distant
period evidently ; since Sir Richard Cope had been interrogated as
to its truth. That it may have, as most legends have, a molecule
of truth may be thus explained. I have been informed that a lady
of a distinguished Italian house affirmed that the event told by
Rogers had actually occurred in her own family; and that it was well
known to them that on some occasion of a succession in the family
the chest, with other personal property, had been sold, and was
purchased by an Englishman. Now, if we connect this story with
the fact of Sir John Cope, the 5th Baronet, having spent many
years of his life in Italy, there is, at least, a possibility that he
was the purchaser, and that the chest once at Bramshill had
contained the lost bride.*''-'
A door, not easily observed, in the panelling leads from the
Gallery into a passage, and immediately opposite is the entrance to
a room called "Flower-de-luce" from the pattern of golden-coloured
fleurs-de-lys on dark green ovals which occur in the centre of each
panel. This colouring has been restored ; but exactly on the lines
and in the tints of the original work. The chimney-opening and
the arch continuing the room into an addition cut off from the
passage are modern. Of course, a house of the age and appearance
of Bramshill cannot be without a ghost ; and this Flower-de-luce
room is the chamber wherein the " White Lady " is said to haunt.
Whether it is the disembodied spirit of the bride, who still lingers
''¦'He was born about 1720.
'"'See more about this Legend, Appendix iv.

53
near the place where the chest which ended her life once was ; or
whether it was, as I have heard a sceptic declare, the actual bodily
presence of a young lady of the last generation soon to be a bride,
who was wont to walk up and down the Gallery with her future
husband in the sweet moonlight after dinner, I will not take upon
me to decide. If the former, the removal of the chest has been
followed by the flitting of the ghost ; if the latter, marriage removed
that White Lady fifty or sixty years ago. But however accounted
for, no spectral White Lady has been seen there by any living witness.
The " White Passage " which runs at right angles with the
passage entered from the Gallery was built, as I have said, about
70 years ago. It had cut off the light from a window which
looked from the small room next Flower-de-luce chamber into the
court. This is, of course, now blocked, and its place has been
supplied by a window high up in the wall, and above the roof of
the passage. This passage gives access to two bed-rooms and a dressing
room which, before it was built, were entered one through the other-
Indeed the two "White-rooms" (as they are called) and Flower-de-
luce room all communicated, as is evident, by a door in the last now
nailed up. The truth is the sanctity of the bed-room is a modern
idea. In all old houses traces remain of bed-chambers which could
only be reached by jsassing through others ; and it would be easy
to prove from old English authors how little the privacy of the
bed-room was regarded. Indeed many still living may recollect when
a " young Ladies' room," and a " Batchelors' room " were usual in
most country houses ; into which many visitors were respectively
associated, three or four or more, in a room. And I have been
assured that so late as the time of Bishop Tomline, of Winchester
(1820- 1 82 7), three gentlemen of position in Hampshire were lodged
in one apartment at Farnham Castle.
Of these two White-rooms there is nothing to observe except
that they are both panelled, and have good Renaissance chimney

54
pieces. There were traces, before they were re-painted, that the
panels had all had arabesque patterns, in dark green, blue, or black,
on the white panels. These I had carefully traced, and they have
been used in the panel decoration of the Garden-room (see p. 40)
The wall between these rooms and the passage is in some places
of great thickness, and may have been a portion of the old Foxley
mansion. There was originally a stair-case where now is the Chintz
dressing-room. This being no longer needed when the White-passage
was constructed, the stair space was floored over, and converted into
a dressing-room. The traces of a second window which lighted
this stair-case are noticeable in the exterior of the wall ; and a beam
or bond which formed part of the stopping of this window, and
which very much marred the appearance of the north-eastern front,
was taken out, and replaced with brickwork, a few years ago.
The chimney-piece in this Chintz-dressing-room, of the same
date as, or but little later than, this house was removed here from
Eversley Manor house.
A door from this room leads into the Chintz-bed-chamber ; in
which there is nothing to observe except the panelling and the
Renaissance chimney-piece, not quite so ornamental as those in the
bed-rooms passed through.
Crossing a lobby, or landing, the " Wrought-room " is entered; no
doubt, deriving its name from the " wrought " hangings of the bed
etc. This room has an ornamental ceiling. The Renaissance chimney-
piece has been cut through in order to introduce an incongruous
frontispiece of the last century. I was in hopes that this deformity
had been placed in front of, and only concealed, the original work ;
but on investigation, some years ago, we found that all the Renaissance
work below the present chimney-piece had been cut away and
destroyed. At the back of the present moveable grate (itself of no litttle
antiquity and interest) is a hearth-back having the arms of King

55
Philip and Queen Mary, borne on the Austrian Eagle, most boldly cast.
Either this hearth-back is older than the house, and has been brought
here from some other place ; or else, the mould must have been
preserved and used for castings up to the time this house was built.
The door-locks in this room are worthy of notice : one is brass,
one steel with brass-mountings, and one japanned. The two first
are of peculiar construction, and are probably coeval with the room ;
the last is similar to several others in this suite of bed-rooms.
Passing through double doors the Green-bed-chamber, which ends
the suite of rooms on this front, is reached. This large and quaint
room has an ornamental ceiling. The walls are panelled, and the
panels are painted with a pattern in green on a white ground. This
room had in the Georgian sera been hung with paper ; and on the
paper being removed the panelling behind it was found perfect. The
stencil-plates for restoring the colouring were made from tracings of
the faded but still very distinct patterns. The frieze is also restored
exactly as originally coloured : the only exception being that there
were evident traces of lions'-heads, carved in relief, on the styles
dividing the panels of the frieze. These (which had apparently been
gilt) had been chopped off flat to allow the modern paper to fit
close to the wall.
The frieze of the chimney-breast is the exact reproduction in
stone of the plaster sofifit of a stopped window over the Terrace-
arches, which I have mentioned p. 32.
The chimney-piece is a restoration : the original having been
removed, as incongruous with the Georgian paper and fittings.
In this room are a small oaken wardrobe, and also an oaken
cabinet, the only pieces of furniture in the house which seem, from
the style, carving, and ornament, to be coeval with the house itself.
A closet off this room, in the bay, deserves notice as an example
of English Renaissance colour. The pattern on the inside of the
door is the same as the room itself, but is white on a red ground.
This is exactly restored according to the original colours.

56
This room opens through double doors into the Chapel-room ;
so called from its contiguity to the former, now desecrated Chapel ;
a name it now fitly retains as access to the present Chapel is only
gained through it.
The peculiar shape, proportions and aspect of this room render
it one of the most striking in the house, or probably in any house
of the period. The two deep bays in the south-western front — so
deep that they almost form separate cabinets — and the shallower
bay in the Terrace front, give it a special charm ; and these two
sides being almost all glazed afford a play of light which renders
it charming as a summer room. The ceiling, of an admirable
Renaissance design with pendants, occupies a middle point between
the plainer ceilings of the bed-rooms just passed through, and the
richer and more elaborate ceilings of the great Drawing-room and
Library. This room is panelled ; and though the chimney-piece is
less prominent and ornamental than most of the others, the quaint
desipfn and the execution of its frieze merit attention. The hearth-
back has the Royal Arms of the Stuarts, with the initials I. R. and
the date 1604.
In this room is a very fine cabinet of Florentine Mosaic; a
most beautifully carved looking-glass frame ; Italian work of the
Renaissance, or succeeding Louis XIV. style, with its accompanying
sconces. From the emblems surrounding the glass it seems to have
been a wedding present. The sconces on the adjoining pier bear
the crest and coronet of the Robartes, Earls of Falmouth, in the
reign of Charles II.
A stone doorway with a tangential arch leads, through the thick
wall of the remains of the Foxley house, into the Chapel. Round
the doorway is painted the inscription :
" ffipeit me tfje satea of Eigljteousnesse tijat 3[ mag go into tijem aits eitje
t!)an63 unto tl}z Horn."
The Chapel rises to the roof, not having any attic over it. The
ceiling is of most beautiful design and is the most elaborate in the

57
house. It represents in the panels the Royal badges of the Crown
and of the Stuarts : the rose within the garter crowned ; the red
lion of Scotland ; and a most graceful flowering fleur-de-lys ; divided
by a flowing pattern of roses and thistles.
The frieze of the cornice bears the inscription :
'• l&ole, IJolB, i^olg, Horn (Son aimialjtB, SUJicI) toaa, ann is, anD ia to
come. ^[)ou art iDOttljg, SD ILort, to recetbe glotg ann Ijonour ann potoer,
for ®l)ou fiaat createD all tfjinea, anti for Zl)2 pleasure tljeg are, anti toere
create!. "
A curious discovery was made in restoring and colouring this
ceiling. It is well known that these ceilings, when originally made,
were hand-worked, z.^.,the plaster was not cast in moulds, as now,
and then joined together, but was stamped and finished off by hand.
In some restoration of part of the ceiling, when, I suppose, the craft
of hand-working had been lost, and the shorter method of casting
had not yet come into vogue, a few square, feet of the ceiling had
actually been carved in wood, exactly to match the original, and had
been fitted into its place. The whole had then been whitewashed,
and the carved portion was undistinguishable, as it is now that it is
painted. The present colouring was done in the year 1852.
The Altar window contains the emblems of the Passion.
The Pictures in the Reredos of the Altar, painted by Mr,
Alexander Rowan, represent the four Saints recorded in Holy
Scripture to have been the nearest to our Blessed Lord.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother, the nearest in the flesh ;
in that He took on Him and bore her nature. [St. Luke, i.
31, 32 ; Galatians, iv, 4.)
St. Stephen, the nearest to Him in suffering ; having been the first
who shed his blood for the confession of his Lord. {Acts, vii. 59.)
St. Mary Magdalene, the nearest to Him in love. {St. Luke, vii.
47; St. John, xi. 5.)
St. John the Evangelist, the nearest to Him in person ; having
been the constant companion of His life, a witness of all His
?

58
miracles, favoured by especial nearness to Him at His Last
Supper, present at His Agony and at His Death. {St. Luke,
ix. 28 ; St. Matt. xvii. i ; St. John, xiii. 23, xix. 26 ; St. Mark,
xiv. 33.)
St. Stephen is represented in his vestments as Deacon, being
one of the first chosen to that holy order {Acts, vi. 5, 6) ; he wears
the Dalmatic of crimson (emblematical of his blood shed for the faith).
In his left hand he bears the Book of the Gospels, in reference to
his office as Deacon, of reading the Holy Gospel (Ordination of
Deacons) ; and on it is placed a Stone, allusive to the manner of
his martyrdom. {Acts, vii. 59.) In his right hand he holds the
Palm Branch, the emblem of his victory as martyr over mortal
suffering, and of the reward of his constancy. {Revelation, vii. 9, 14.)
The Blessed Virgin is represented as holding in her arms the
Divine Infant, Who, with arms extended in the form of a Cross,
and eyes raised to Heaven, devotes Himself (as it were), from the
moment of His birth, to the great object of His Incarnation, the
suffering for men in the nature He had assumed of His Virgin
Mother, and thereby reconciling man to God. {Coloss. i. 21, 22.)
The inclination of the head of the Babe to the left symbolises His
act and motion at the instant the great work of Redemption was
consummated. {St. John, xix. 30.) The Blessed Virgin sustains the
Babe in a linen veil, her hands nowhere touching His flesh ; a
method taken by the old painters to express the perfect union of
the Divine and human nature in His Person, and the immeasurable
super-excellence of that body " in which dwelt all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily " {Coloss. ii. 9) ; which made any mere human nature
(however pure), as was the Blessed Virgin's, unfit to touch it. She
is represented as gazing, in love and reverence, on her Son and
Saviour. She wears a robe of red (the colour of love), and a mantle
of dark blue (the colour of constancy) ; because she alone of all did
not forsake him and flee, but in love and constancy stood by at His
Passion, beside His Cross, and at His grave. On her brow shines

59
a Star; her emblem as bearing "the Star" that should "come out
of Jacob" {Numbers, xxiv. 17), and allusive to a meaning attached
to the Hebrew form of her name, Miriam, signifying " Star of the
Sea." St. Mary Magdalene is represented bearing the Alabaster Box
of very precious ointment, wherewith she anointed our Blessed Lord
{St. Matt. xxvi. 7) ; and with the long fair hair with which she
wiped His feet {St. Liike, vii. 38) ; both means by which she showed
the earnestness and fruitfulness of her repentance. She wears a
splendid and richly jewelled dress, alluding as well to the worldliness
of her life before her repentance, as to her riches, which are
traditionally recorded to have been great. The colour of her robe,
violet (emblematical of sorrow), represents the depth and sincerity
of her repentance.
St. John the Evangelist is represented with his right hand raised
in blessing in the name of the Trinity, the thumb and two fingers
being elevated ; while his left holds a Chalice, from which a serpent
or dragon is issuing. This is in allusion to the "Cup" of sufferings
which our Lord had prophesied that he "should indeed drink of"
{St. Matt. XX. 23) ; but in all which he triumphed, and overcame by
faith in the Holy Trinity : whereby the snares and bitterness the
Old Serpent, or dragon, had prepared for him in the cup of suffering
were cast out and done away. He is vested in red, the colour of
love, of which he is, in his Epistles, the great teacher ; and green,
the colour of hope, as being, in a special manner, the type of those
who wait and hope for their blessed Lord's coming {St. John, xxi.
20 — 24 ; Rev. xxii. 20).
The whole of these figures are pictured as bowing in reverent
love and devotion before the Holy Babe, borne in His Mother's arms.
Altogether, the Altarpiece may be taken to be symbolical of the
Incarnation, as represented in the Divine Infant ; and ofthe influence
that event has had on our nature in regenerating it, and enabling it
with Purity (represented by the Blessed Virgin Mary), Courage (by

6o
St. Stephen), Love to, God (by St. Mary Magdalene), and Love to our
Brethren (by St. John).
The predella, representing the Entry into Jerusalem, the Pro
cession to Calvary, and the Crucifixion, was painted by Mr. Rowan.
The panels below, on each side of the Altar, are painted with the
Monstrance and Wafer, the Pelican feeding her young, the Holy Lamb,
and the Chalice, divided by a graceful pattern of vine branches bearing
grapes ; and surmounted with the inscription, (Slotg be to ®i)ee, SD ILorli.
These panels are painted from designs by the late James Redfern,
the well-known sculptor.
The Tapestry in this Chapel is of very early date ; and has
been pronounced by a competent authority to be not later than 1450.
I do not know where it originally came from *'¦' ; but in the early
years of this century it covered the walls of the Red Drawing-room ;
as I have been informed by Lord Eversley, who remembers seeing
it there in his childhood. When that room was modernized it was
relegated to the attics, and was cut to pieces to fit the doors and
partitions of servants' rooms to keep out draughts. From this I
rescued it. As far as could be the pieces were matched and sewn
together. But much had perished : the whole lower part of the
portion between the door and side window of the Chapel was so
jagged and mutilated that it was impossible to piece or preserve it ;
and portions of it were used to patch (as is but too evident) the
missing parts of the large piece on the North-Eastern wall. But
injured and pieced as it is, this Tapestry is very remarkable ; it
has been thought by those qualified to form an opinion to be of
German workmanship, or, at least, of German design.
''¦' Probably from Hanwell or JBrewerne. At the former there was, I believe, no
Chapel, the Church being adjacent to the house, with a communication between them.
In the old house of Brewerne there was a Chapel (I suppose the old conventual one),
which is repeatedly mentioned in Lady Elizabeth Cope's Diary, 1632-1656. That
house was pulled down and a new one built in Queen Anne's time and style by
Sir Jonathan Cope, the first Baronet of Brewerne. The subjects would seem to
suggest that this Tapestry was for a sacred building, but this was not universally the
case in the Middle Ages.

6i
Beginning on the side facing the Altar the subject in the medallion
is : Aaron in the Holy of Holies praying before the Ark of the
Covenant, in which are twelve rods, one of which is budding ; the
altar on which the Ark rests is vested like a Catholic altar of the
middle ages. On his sleeve is his name ar"o (Aaron).
Large Subject : The people waiting without ; two priests draw
the curtains of the Sanctuary in which is seen the Ark ; beyond
which are two figures also looking in.
In the centre medallion : A figure of a King praying, probably
David ; (the head has been destroyed and supplied with a piece of
drapery,) before him a lamb.
Large Subject : The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The blessed Virgin crowned, and with long hair flowing over her
shoulders, bears the holy Infant on her left arm, and holds an apple
in her right hand. She is attired in an under robe of blue, and
in a magnificent upper robe of red. She is surrounded by Angels,
one of whom plays on a viol, another on a harp. Below are the
heads of a multitude gazing upwards in adoration.
Medallion : the Prophet Isaiah, represented as an old bearded
man ; on his robe is his name Jfaiss. He bears a tablet, on which
is a figure (of Jacob .'') bearing an uprooted tree, branching into two
boughs which bear twelve crowns ; at the top it ends in a crowned
head. The allusion seems to be to Isaiah xxvii. 6.
The Tapestry is continued on the North-Eastern wall, where the
first medallion represents a crowned figure vested in a crimson robe
with an ermine cape ; in his left hand he bears a sceptre and tablet,
to which he points with the fore-finger of the right hand. This tablet
contains a figure of the blessed Virgin, crowned, and richly robed
in blue and red, riding on an eagle ; in allusion to Revelations xii. 14.
Between this and the next medallion is represented the star —
figured as a comet — appearing to the wise men, who are lying in a
plain beside their tents.

6^
The centre medallion contains the Adoration of the Royal Sages.
The blessed Virgin bears the Divine Child Who is adored by the
three Magi ; one of whom bears a crown ; another has an eastern
head-dress ; the third is bare-headed. The murder of the Innocents
is indicated by the dead body of a child lying on the fore-ground.
In the third medallion the Queen of Sheba, crowned and most
richly attired, attended by her waiting-woman, appears before Solomon
who is seated on his throne, crowned, and surrounded by his court.
In the rest of this Tapestry, the Church and the world appear
before our Blessed Lord seated in the arms of the Virgin. He is
in the act of receiving an olive-branch presented by a figure, on
whose robe is inscribed Mik (misericordia : " mercy) ; while another
figure on the other side of the blessed Infant bears on her wrist
a dove ; on her robe is inscribed I&umilitas (Humility).
In various parts of this piece of Tapestry are represented an
Emperor, crowned ; a Cardinal, having a Patriarchal cross borne
before him ; a Bishop carrying his pastoral staff; a King bearing
his sceptre ; monks, ladies, etc., all looking up to and adoring the
Saviour, borne on His Mother's arm ; some of whom bear labels
inscribed : — an te clamamus. — 3D pia. — D tiulcis iSlaria,
being extracts from the ancient Catholic Hymn : " Salve Regina."
In the adjacent compartment, separated from this by the shaft
which bears the central medallion, are representations of several vices.
Among them one (nearest the door) in a rich robe inscribed abaricia ;
one bearing an ornamental casket filled with money, inscribed on
her robe, jFraus (Deceit). Another, with a very rich robe, and several
rows of necklace ; she is inscribed aianitas. Another, with long hair,
in an ermine robe, with a richly jewelled head-dress, is inscribed
€>alacia (Salacitas? Lust). Another bears the inscription ©tDicio (Perditio,
Wastefulness) ; close to her is an animal resembling a pig. Another
female figure, of which the bust is seen, appears to be undraped,
except by a crimson mantle, the fastening of which crosses her

63
bosom. Another female figure, with long hair, wearing a red hood,
with a hat over it, holds a cock against her breast.
The effect of these Tapestries, when the colours were still fresh
and bright, must have been very fine. Even now, in their decay,
they are very noteworthy. The expression of the heads is finely
conceived and executed ; the drawing of the figures admirable ;
and the draperies disposed with great breadth and elegance.
Round the fire-place is the inscription :
3SeI)oHi tl)c JFire anU tlje Mooti; 3Sut tofjere ia tlje Hamb for a 93urnt=i)flfetin(j.
And over the door, on leaving the Chapel :
JLeaD me fort|) in ^{j^ ttuti), anti leatn me.
It has been thought that the present Chapel was probably the
gallery for the use of the family, looking into the original Chapel ; if,
as has been suggested, it ran out in the southern wing. But however
that may be, the present apartment from its dimensions (29 feet by
21) is admirably suited for a domestic Oratory: the bay at the end
affording an excellent recess for the Altar.

Returning to the Hall and passing under the arch of the screens
nearest to the window, a door in a rustic semicircular arch gives
access to the western wing. This, as I have stated p. 28, has been
rebuilt ; it is therefore, with the exception of the short passage leading
to it, entirely modern. The stair-case, though constructed so much
more recently than any other part of the house, was in danger of
collapsing ; and the props and struts introduced to secure its stability
have been designed so as to give it a character somewhat in harmony
with the rest of the house.
A door near the other arch of the screens leads to a staircase
in the Queen Anne style, constructed no doubt in the repairs of
the beginning of the last century.

On a landing at the top of the first flight is a sniall room —
of which the window is now blocked, — which still retains the name
of the " Powdering Closet " ; being, no doubt, the apartment to
which ladies or gentlemen resorted to be powdered by their hand
maids or valets ; in order, I presume, to spare the hangings and
furniture of their rooms from being impregnated with that
impalpable dust.
A doorway*'-' at the top of the lower flight leads into the
entresol introduced between the first and ground floors in the
repairs of 1 701-3. This entresol contains five rooms, of which there
is nothing further to remark than that they are panelled and fitted
according to the style in vogue at the time of their construction.
Beyond these are three other rooms, the entresol of the original
construction ; see p. 31. These are of course stone-mullioned and
Jacobean. Another doorway, adjoining that by which the entresol is entered,
leads to a newel staircase ascending to the attics. This staircase
was constructed when the red and white passages were built and
the Chapel desecrated. For it blocks a window which previously
looked into the Court.
But the best approach to the attic floor is by a newel staircase
near the Billiard-room, which is part of the original construction,
and seems to. have been inserted in, or formed out of, the old Foxley
gate-house. At the top of this staircase is a short flat balustrade
of excellent design, and of the date of the house. It probably came
from some other place.
The attics in the North -Western — the gabled — front are bed-rooms.
Those over the gallery are mostly store-rooms. But on the South-
Eastern front is in the attic storey one enormous apartment lighted
by windows looking into the Court. There is, of course, a tradition
<"¦' Over this door is a piece of tapestry representing David. It came from Cumnor
Hall ; but is (I am afraid) of too late a date to have been looked on by Amy Robsart,

F. M. Good, Photo.

\Vo.j.!bt.iiy'ype

GARDEN AND TERRACE FRONT.

65
that on one occasion (in the Civil War, probably) a whole troop, or
a regiment, was accommodated in this vast attic.*'-'
A short passage from the newel-staircase leads to the exterior
of the roof. A passage three feet wide (expanding, over the principal
front, into much wider terraces) forms a path on the flat leads round
three sides of the house, between the sloping tiled roof and the
ornamental parapet. From these leads a most magnificent view is
obtained on a clear day ; embracing the Netdebed Hills in Oxford
shire, the Buckinghamshire Hills, the nearest high ground of Farley
Hill and the Finchampstead ridges in Berkshire, the Surrey Hills,
Caisar's Camp and the Queen's Pavilion at Aldershot, Odiham Clump,
the North Downs, and Siden Hill in Highclere Park ; and all the
richly wooded and diversified landscape comprised within this circuit,
which seems to lie, mapped-out, at the observer's feet.
On the North-Eastern front, an iron half-hoop is fixed to, and
projects from, the ornamental parapet. It is said that in olden
days a lamp was on winter evenings placed in this support, to
guide those returning from hunting, or belated members of the
family, when wending their way across the vast expanse of
Hartfordbridge-flats and the neighbouring heaths, which extend for
miles in this direction. In times long past this beacon may have
been useful, and doubtless was so ; the light would then have
been perceptible from a great distance. But now the fir-woods
have so much grown up and are so dense, that such a light would
be visible only by glimpses — if at all — until the wayfarer was so
near as to need no further guidance.
''• Nothing is known of the history of Bramshill during the Civil War. Lying but
little off the road between Reading and Basing, and on the direct road from London to
Basing, it must have seen many troops of Cavaliers and Roundheads, and some skirmishes
too ; for in digging foundations in a cottage garden at Bramshill-row, a little more than a
mile from the house, a two pound iron shot was found ; no doubt a relic of that time,
It is now in the Hall.
i

66
Something must now be said of the surroundings of the
house : the Park, its scenery and its trees.
The Park, as we have seen, was formed in 1347. It has
been considerably increased since that period by enclosures from
the adjoining heath, and now consists of about 1000 acres. Its
surface is singularly and beautifully diversified. The house stands
on the western edge of the plateau which rises from the vale of
the Blackwater and forms Hartfordbridge-flats. From the South
western front of the house the ground falls to the little river which
rises near Aldershot and falls into the Blackwater : it is here dammed
up to a considerable breadth, and crossed by an ornamental bridge.
From this the ground rises slightly to Haseley heath, and then
subsides to the flat country towards Basingstoke, and to the North
Downs. This position of the house gives it the command of the
extensive prospect which I have already described.
Three principal avenues lead to the house. The front avenue,
which leads straight from Haseley Heath to the principal front, is
planted with a double row of elms from the house to the bridge,
and thence with oaks. The length of this avenue is about three-
quarters of a mile to the lodges, and about a mile in total length
till it ends on Haseley Heath ; but the configuration of the ground
which I have just mentioned, falling steeply from the house to the
stream and thence gently rising, gives it the appearance of a much
greater length to any one looking down on it from the house.
Another avenue leads from the North-Eastern front to the
little hamlet of Bramshill ; and from its being the road to the
nearest large town, Reading, is called the Reading avenue.
The third leads from that front in a North-Easterly direction
to Eversley. It is for nearly a mile of its length straight, and
being planted on each side with fir-trees, mostly Scotch and Silver
of great size, is named the Fir avenue, and is of extreme beauty
and grandeur.

^7
A ride or drive which branches from this avenue and leads to
the neighbouring village of Hartfordbridge, dips into a narrow
valley, and runs through scenery of great beauty. It is known as
Lady Eversley's ride. *''
The scenery of the Park is, as I have said, of great beauty
Situated on the lower Bagshot sands, the ground is much broken,
and clothed in the wilder parts with fern and heath. The former
in some seasons grows to a very great height — six feet or more.
The Scotch fir too grows here self-sown, in great quantities. The
aspect of the Park and its avenues has seldom failed to strike
those who have any eye for the picturesque.
"The scenery on each side of the" [Reading] "avenue, through
which we approach the mansion, is singularly wild and romantic. All
around looks as if it had just come forth from the hands of Nature.
The wild heather blooms in rich and luxuriant beauty on the velvet
turf, as though the foot of man had never been there to trample
on its blossoms. The Park looks as though it was coeval with the
formation of the universe. Nothing can be more striking than
the effect produced by the fine old pile suddenly breaking on the
view, in the midst of scenery so primeval in its character, and so
completely harmonizing with its peculiar style of architecture." *^-'
" Its great charm lies in the air of unprofaned antiquity which
surrounds it. There are no modern additions ; and the broad
balustraded terraces, the quaint gardens, and the venerable oaks
and yew trees whose branches overshadow the walks, call up visions
of stately white-plumed cavaliers, whose talk will be of the unhappy
fight of Cheriton, or of the downfall of ' Loyalty ' at Basing." *3-'
''•' It was made in consequence of a suggestion of the late Viscountess Eversley
that so beautiful a part of the Park, which was then only accessible to pedestrians,
should be opened up.
'^¦'Robertson's Environs of Reading, p. 151.
'3' Murray's Handbook of Hants, p. 159.

68
The trees deserve special notice. Some remains of oaks of great
size stand on the South-Eastern side of the house, and from the way
in which those which still exist are disposed, they seem to have
formed an avenue to that side of the original mansion. For they
are undoubtedly as old as the formation of the park. They are
now mere ruins of their former greatness ; butare very picturesque.
The oak on the brow of the hill on the East of the house is from
its size and position very striking. Its dimensions are :
Girth (at 4 feet from the ground) ... 17 feet.
Diameter of the spread of branches... no feet.
The late Charles Kingsley, who with the eye not only of a lover
of nature but of a true poet, revelled in these trees, speaks of " James
the First's gnarled oaks up in Bramshill Park, the only place in
England where a painter can see what Scotch firs are."
It is so : the habit of the Scotch Fir in this park, whether it
be that the soil is exceptionally favourable to their growth, or that
they have grown up separate, and unconfined by the proximity of
surrounding trees, is quite different from the usual habit of such
conifers. Many of them are as round-headed as oaks or beeches,
and at a distance present the same outline. I give the measurements
of some of the largest : the girth being taken (when not otherwise
stated) at four feet from the ground :
I. In the Fir Avenue — feet. inches.
Girth ... ,.. ... ... ... 15 o
Ditto at the root ... ... ... 18 11
Spread of branches ... ... .., 72 o
2. On the edge of the hill opposite the terracejront —
Girth ... ... ... ... ... 14 9
Ditto at the root ... ... ... 21 3
Spread of branches ... ... ... 72 3
In the ride from that to gravel hill —
3. Girth... ... ... ... ... 9 I
4. Girth... ... ... ... ,.. 9 2

69

5-

On the edge of the hill, on the right —

feet.

inches.

Girth 

II

6

In

the ride from thence towards the Temple —

6. Girth 
¦ • ¦
ID
10
Girth of the lowest bough near
the
trunk
• * •
3
4
7. Girth 
II
4
8. Girth 
13
2
Girth of the lowest bough near
the
trunk
. . •
8
2
Girth at the roots
• > •
18
8
9. Girth...
...
II
6
ID.
In the valley —
Girth 
9
7
Girth of a bough, near the trunk
...
6
2
II.
In the valley near the large jj/^w*'-' —
Girth 
. . .
8
I
12. Girth
II
2
13. Girth
1 1
2
It forks about seven feet from
the
ground.
Girth of one branch ...
• ¦ •
7
3
Ditto of the lowest bough, one
foot
from the trunk ,.,
, , ¦
3
0
Ditto of the next bough
,.,
3
I
14.
Opposite the Temple —
Girth 
,,,
9
0
15-
In the avenue thence towards the House—
-
Girth 
,.,
10
0
''¦' There are several ancient yews here, which seem to have formed an avenue. The
girth of this one, at four feet from the ground, is 7 feet 1 1 inches.
76
1 6. In the avenue thence towards the Temple — feet. inches.
Girth  9 2
A branch of this tree is most curiously decumbent and where
it touches the ground appears to have become rooted and to have
sent up another limb.
I am aware that it is universally considered that resinous trees
are non-reproductive, and incapable of propagation from layers. I
can only state the patent fact that where the decumbent branch of
this tree touches the ground it is partly buried and apparently rooted ;
and that from that point a limb or small tree grows up. All those to
whom I have shewn it have been of opinion that there has been
reproduction from the rooted bough. feet. inches.
17. Girth  10 o
18. Next tree, at the corner of the avenue leading from the house
to the Temple —
Girth  9 6
19. Next tree, on the left of that avenue —
Girth  10 4
20. Mile tree,^^-^ in " South' s Moor" —
Girth  II 3
21. At the head of the valley from Lady Eversley's ride —
Girth  II 4
Girth of lowest bough ... ... ... 4 o
Ditto of the next bough ... , . , 8 4
22. Outside the eastern hunting-gate — ¦
Girth  8 5
Ditto of the lowest bough ,,, ,., 4 10
23, Inside the park palings, between the eastern hunting-gate and
the Fir Avenue gate —
Girth  9 3
"• So called because it marks a point in Lady Eversley's ride exactly a measured mile
from the house.

et.

inches.

8

6

5

I

4

9

6

IO

4 5
3 6
3 3
4 4

71
24. On the right of the Fir Avenue near the park gate (going out)-
Girth 
Ditto of the lowest bough
Above the fork :
Girth of one branch
Ditto of the other
25. On the brow of the hill between gravel-hill and the new road-
Girth at 2 feet 6 inches from the
ground ... ... ... .., 11 8
Ditto at 4 feet from the ground, above
the spring of the lower boughs... 9 2
Ditto of first bough ...
Ditto of second bough
Ditto of third bough ...
Ditto of fourth bough
The dimensions of the largest trees here given exceed those of
any of the Scotch fir trees given in the " Transactions of the Highland
Society, January, 1865." Many of the girths in that list which at
first sight seem to be larger are taken at the root.
It is said by carpenters who have worked at Bramshill for more
than fifty years that the wood of the " Avenue Fir " (as they called
it), viz. the great old trees or those produced from their cones, was
as close grained and almost as hard as (foreign) yellow deal ; and
easily distinguishable from the wood of common Scotch fir.
And I may add that the suggested distinction of this species
into Pinus Silvestris and P. Montana is easily perceptible in this park.
The question remains where did the seeds of these trees come
from. I have read somewhere (I have mislaid the reference) that
Lord Zouche was an eminent horticulturist. Was he also an arbori
culturist, and did he procure the seeds from Lombardy or some
foreign country ? or did he, by means of his former embassy to
Scotland, obtain the seeds from some of the great Highland Lords

72
there .'' or again are any of these trees so old as his time ? These
are questions which must be left to others better versed in the history
and habits of these Pines. I observe however that the table in the
Highland Society's transactions gives an estimate of two hundred,
three hundred, and even five hundred years of age, to some of the
trees there enumerated.
One other lusus natures besides that noted in No. i6, occurs in
this park, where the branches of a large oak and beech tree have
not only interlaced but interpenetrated each other ; so that boughs
of the one are growing out of the other. This is most remarkable,
as they are both of great size. I suppose at a very remote period they
formed part of a hedge — which indeed the ground and surroundings
seem to intimate — and that when young they had been " plashed,''
and then allowed to grow, the cuts (in plashing) having healed over
the interlaced shoot.
A ride or allie verte leading from the southern angle of the
" troco terrace " is named in the old plans " Lady Abney's walk ; " I
suppose from the wife of Sir Thomas Abney, the friend and patron
of Watts. He was, I believe, one of the founders of the Bank of
England ; and he and Sir John Cope, the sixth Baronet, were two
of the original directors, which may have led to Lady Abney's visits
to Bramshill, and to her love for the pretty and secluded " walk "
which has preserved her name.

n

LIST OF THE PICTURES AT BRAMSHILL.
In the Hall.
I. — Thomas, Lord Wyndham.
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, died 1745. In robes as Lord
Chancellor. The left hand on the purse.
He was first cousin to Anne (Wyndham), Lady Cope (16).
Marked " Isaac Seeman, P^f " ; and inscribed on the back :
" The Right Honourable Thomas, Lord Wyndham, Baron of Finglass,
Lord Steward of Ireland."
2. — Meet of Sir John Copes hounds at Bramshill, with a view of
part of the front of the house, and portraits of Sir John Cope,
Bart., T. Peers Williams of Temple, Esq., Gerard Blisson Wharton,
Esq., and (sitting in a chair) John Warde, of Squerries, Esq.
Painted by Edwd. Havell, 1837,
The servants, horses, and dogs are all portraits.
3. — Lady Wyndham.
Half-length, sitting ; in black satin dress, and cloak lined with
miniver. Barbara, wife of Sir Wadham Wyndham (4) ; and daughter of
Sir George Gierke of Watford in Northamptonshire. She was
great-grandmother of Anne, Lady Cope (16).
4. — Sir Wadham, Wyndham.
Half-length sitting,
He was a judge of the King's-bench in the reign of Charles II.
Husband of the preceding and great-grandfather of Anne, Lady
Cope (16). Under the Screens.
5. — William Stratton, with a favourite retriever " Turk!'
Stratton was gamekeeper to Sir John and Sir William Cope
for nearly half a century. Died 1869. Painted by E. Havell.

74
Terrace Hall.
6. — Lieutenant-General Cope.
Father of Sir William Cope. Died 1835.
7. — Mrs. Susanna Cope.
Grandmother of Lieutenant-General Cope. Died 1794.
Dining Room.
8. — William Cope, Esq.
Grandfather of Sir William Cope. Died 1820.
9. — Mrs. Charlotte Cope.
Daughter of Samuel Hautenville, Esq., wife of the preceding,
and grandmother of Sir William Cope. Died 1774.
Red Drawing Room.
Over the door on entering.
I o — Mr. Wadham Wyndham.
Of Fir-grove, Eversley ; uncle of Anne, Lady Cope (16).
Died 1779. Drawn in Pastel.
1 1 — Lady BoHngbroke.
Inscribed on the back : " Frances, daughter of Sr. Henry
Winchcombe, and wife to Henry St. John, Viscount BoHngbroke."
Half-length, seated ; in white satin dress and blue scarf ; in her
left hand a bunch of flowers ; the right hand supporting the head.
She was the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry
Winchcombe, and was married in 1700 to Lord BoHngbroke, Queen
Anne's Minister. She died in France in 1718, aged 38, and is
buried at Bucklebury, near Reading. She had retired into a life of
strict devotion, weaned from the world by the neglect and infidelity
of her husband, who had formed an adulterous connection with
Marie Claire des Champs de Maresilly, Marchioness de Villette, a
widow of fifty-two, with several children.

75
His first wife, the subject of this portrait, was, as she is here
represented, a celebrated beauty. John Phillips, in an ode to BoHng
broke, thus celebrates her charms : —
 Quin precor. Optima
Ut usque conjux sospitetur.
Perpetuo recreans amore
Te consulentem militia super
Rebus togatum. Macte ! Tori decus
Formosa cui Francesca cessit,
Crine placens, niveoque coUo !
Quam gratiarum cura decentium,
0 i O ! labellis cui Venus insidet,
Tu sorte felix.'"-'
Thus " Englished " by an unknown hand : —
Health to the fair, whose charms can soothe
The statesman's arduous toils, and smooth
The patriot's rough career —
The factious court, the camp's alarms,
St. John forgets in Fanny's arms.
Supremely blest in her —
The sparkling glance, the lofty brow,
The curls that round her neck of snow
In clustering ringlets twine.
The cultured mind, the modest grace.
And lips the roseate resting place
Where Venus smiles are thine.
And again, in his poem of " Cyder," in lamenting the death of
her sister Elizabeth Winchcombe, he thus apostrophizes her :
 Such heats prevailed when fair Eliza, last
Of Winchcombe's name (next thee in blood and worth,
O fairest St. John), left this toilsome world.'*'
But BoHngbroke did not consider himself " Supremely blest in
her," beautiful, accomplished, and rich though she was. For whether
her temper was not conformable to his, or whether he was not
''-' Poems of Mr. John Phillips, p. 42.
'=•' Cyder, Book i.

76
weaned by her charms from his former libertinage, it is said*'-' that
they separated, and 'that on his flight she remained in England.
However as she certainly was afterwards in France, she seems to
have followed him. But there they did not Hve together long ; for
he married, while she was stiH alive, in 1716, Madame de Villette.*'-'
This portrait used to be attributed to Sir Peter Lely ; but Lady
BoHngbroke was born in the year (1680) in which Lely died. It
is a most admirably painted portrait, and as she seems to have resided
in France, and died there, it may probably be attributed to some
of the great portrait painters of the French School.
12. — Mrs. Garnet t.
Alice, daughter of William Cope (8), wife of Henry Garnett,
Esq., and mother of Marianne, Lady Cope.
Painted by Catterson Smith, President of the Royal Irish Academy,
in 1854, Mrs. Garnett being then in her 79th year. She died 1862,
13. — The Lnfant Saviour and St. John the Baptist, encircled with
flowers. By Daniel Seghers.
i\.—Mrs. Pitt.
Inscribed on the back: "Elizabeth, dau'^ of Thomas Wyndham
(of Hawkchurch, Dorset), wife to William Pitt, of Kingston, Dorset.
ob. circa i76o,*3' aetat. 65."
Arms on the picture : Pitt impaling Wyndham.
Half-length, seated ; in white satin and lace ; in her right hand
flowers. A most beautiful and pleasing portrait. I do not know by whom
it was painted. Mrs. Pitt was aunt of Anne, Lady Cope (16).
15. — Marie de Medici, Queen of France.
Vandyke,
''¦'Life of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, 1770, p. 12.
'*' Biographical Dictionary, 1784, xi. p. 219.
'3' This is a mistake; the codicil of her will is dated 25th November, 1765, about
which time she died, aged 70. She was born 1695. See No. 134.

This picture belonged to King Charles I., and is thus described
in his catalogue. No. 22 : —
"Done by Sir " ^'-™- ^ picture of the Queen's Mother of
Ant. Vandyke, France, sitting in an arm-chair in a black habit,
bought by the holding in her right hand a handful of roses, half
King." a figure so big as life, in a carved gilded frame."
In the back-ground is a view of Cologne.
Engraved by P. Pontius, with the inscription : " Mater Trium
Regum ; " also by P. van Soaper, in an embellished frame, and also
by P. de Jode.
Mrs. Jameson, in her " Handbook to the Public GaUeries" (p.
187) after describing this portrait, says " I know not where this
picture is." It was, no doubt, sold at the dispersion of Charles the
First's gallery ; but when it found its way to Bramshill, I do not know.
16. — Anne, Lady Cope.
In white satin, and blue mantle.
Anne, daughter of Thomas Wyndham, Esq., of Yately ; first
wife of Sir Richard Cope, 9th Baronet. She died 1785.
17. — Sir Anthony Vandyke. Painted by himself.
He seems to be about twenty-five years of age. With light
hair. He is dressed in a purple-coloured vest and a large black
silk mantle, which covers the left shoulder and arm. The fingers of
that hand touch the edge of a pedestal on which he leans. The
right hand is raised towards the face. The hands most beautifully
modelled. " This excellent and interesting picture appears to be the work
of the painter about the time he resided at Genoa." *'•'
Engraved by P, Pontius ; and etched by Geddes.
1%.—Mrs. Bethel.
By Sir Godfrey Kneller.

'"•'Smith's Catalogue, ii. 2io-2ri.

78
Inscribed on the back : " Anne Bethell, daughter of Sir John
Cope [6th], Bart., and wife to Hugh Bethel.*'-' Ob.: 1731."
Half length seated. In blue velvet dress, holding a flower in
her right hand. Landscape back-ground.
i^.— The Holy Family. B^ ^^^^^^_
The Blessed Virgin, seated on a throne, holds the Holy Infant
extended on her lap ; to whom the Infant Baptist, standing near her
right knee, leans forward. Behind him is a cradle, and in front a
lamb. St. Joseph in the back-ground.
A very pleasing picture ; painted in his early manner, probably
while he was in Italy. The Virgin is very delicately and gracefully
depicted : very differently from the coarse representations of his later
style. 20. — Rachel, Countess of Bath. By Vandyke.
Half length ; standing at a table, on which she is holding flowers.
In white satin, with green scarf. The hair in curls.
Lady Rachel Fane, daughter of Francis, ist Earl of Westmore
land, widow of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Bath, and sister of Lady
Elizabeth Cope, wife of the 3rd Bart.
Inscribed : " Rachell, Countese Dowager of Bath." Beneath is
the Bourchier knot.
21. — Catherine, Lady Cope.
Daughter and heir of John Law, Esq., of Rotherham, Yorkshire,
and widow of John Burton, Esq., of Owlerton, Yorkshire. Second
wife of Sir Richard Cope, 9th Bart. She died in 1801.
Billiard-room,
22. — Portrait of a young Lady.
In blue low dress, white under-sleeves, and red scarf round her
waist. Long curls. She holds an arrow in her right hand. At her
'¦¦'He was of Rise, Yorkshire. They were married at Eversley, 20th January, 1727.
The date of her death is an error; she died 28th February, 1728-9.

79
side, a large dog. Landscape back-ground. Marked on back :
" Mistress Cope." I do not know who it can represent, unless it
be Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Cope, 3rd Baronet, who married
1665 Thomas Estcourt, of Lachbury in Gloucestershire and died in
1677. She was born in 1638, and in this picture appears to be
about 16 or 18 years old.
23. — Henry VIIL and Anne Boleyn. g Hogarth.
The other figures represent Cardinal Wolsey, Queen Catherine
of Arragon, and Lord Percy.
Hogarth painted this picture (with others) in 1730, for his friend
Jonathan Tyers, who then opened Vauxhall gardens. It hung in
the portico of the great room at VauxhaH, on the right hand of the
entry into the garden.*'-' Engraved by Hogarth.
24. — A Lady, tm-named. Ascribed to Mark Garrard.
In a red dress embroidered ; white ruff. In the costume of
the time of Elizabeth or James I.
25. — A gentleman, un-named.
Half-length ; in black, with falling collar and white sleeves puffed
at the wrist ; long hair. Landscape seen through an open window.
The dress is of the time of Charles I.
26. — Mrs. Honor Cope.
In black velvet mantle, trimmed with black lace ; a cap, a flat
ermine boa, both hands in a scarlet velvet muff, edged with ermine.
Daughter of Charles Sampey, of Rossmoyle, Esq., wife of
William Cope, whom she survived nearly fifty years and died in
1764. Grandmother of WilHam Cope (8).
27. — Queen Mary.'-^'^
Three-quarter length standing. In a rich dress embroidered in
red and yellow, much distended ; white under-petticoat, white sleeves
<'•' Nichol's Hogarth, i. 47. ii. 71, 72.
''^ ' Called in the old Catalogue Queen Elizabeth ; but it is evident from comparison
of portraits, and from descriptions of the two sisters that it represents the elder.

8o
richly jewelled; lace starched ruff; reddish hair, and jewelled head
dress. Round her waist a stomacher of jewels, which falls in a long
pendant over the petticoat. In her left hand a white handkerchief
edged and tasselled with gold.
28. — Mrs. Maria Cope. Painted (1844) by J. W. Sage.
In a widow's dress ; the left arm resting on a table covered
with a red and white cover ; the hand holding a pair of silver
mounted spectacles. Wife of General Cope (6) and mother of Sir
William Cope.
29. — Mrs. Penelope Cope.
Full length sitting. In a red dress, holding a wreath of flowers
with both hands ; her left arm round a lamb ; white shoes embroidered
in colours. Landscape back-ground.
Only daughter of General the Honourable Harry Mordaunt
(brother of Charles, Earl of Peterborough) by his second wife,
Penelope, only surviving child of WilHam Tipping of Ewelme, Esq_
She was born in 171 2, married at the age of 14, in 1726 to Monoux
Cope (31), eldest son of the 6th Baronet, but died at the age of 25
in 1737 long before he succeeded to the title.
It may be amusing to mention, as illustrative of the habits and
the value of money at the beginning of the last century, that the
Master of the Rolls, Sir Joseph Jekyll, allocated for the maintenance
and education of this young Lady, the niece of the celebrated Earl
of Peterborough, and heiress to a considerable landed property, the
sum of ^70 a year, in 1720, when she was eight years old. She
was a ward in Chancery, her parents being then both dead ; and this
sum was thus made up and approved by a Master-in-Chancery : — *'-'
For boarding herself and her maid ... ^35 o o
For dancing, writing, singing, playing on
ye spinette, learning French, etc. ... 15 o o
For Cloaths, etc. .,, ... ... ... 20 o o

^70

'"¦' Original document in my possession.

Si
A table laid toith fruit, etc. By De Heem.
A wonderful specimen of the naturalistic style.
31. — Sir Monoux Cope.
Inscribed on the back: "Sir Monoux Cope, Bart, ob : 1763.
^tat 65."
In crimson velvet coat and waistcoat ; hat under left arm, the
hand of which holds a glove. Landscape back-ground.
Son of Sir John Cope (57) and AHce, Lady Cope (56), succeeded
as 7th Bart, and died 1763.
32. — Dead game and a cat. By £. Havell.
Stair Case.
ZZ-~Mr. Bethell.
Hugh Bethell, of Rise, Yorkshire; husband of Anne Cope (18
and 52). He died 1752.
34. — Colonel Mordaunt. By Bartholomew Dandridge.
He is dressed in a scarlet coat faced with leopard skin ; a blue
over-coat. His hand on a very large yellow and white dog.
Afterwards General Sir John Mordaunt, K.B. Son of the
Honourable Harry Mordaunt, and half-brother of Penelope Cope
(29), He died in 1780,
35. — Mrs. Tipping. By Sir Godfrey Kneller.
In loose red dress, and blue mantle.
Elizabeth (Colet) wife of William Tipping Esq. of Ewelme, mother
of Penelope Mordaunt, and grand-mother of Penelope Cope (29).
36. — Mr. Wyndham.
In murrey-coat, with sword ; holding his hat in his right hand.
Thomas Wyndham, of Hawkchurch, Dorset, and of Yateley,
Hants; father of Anne, Lady Cope (16). He died 1763.

82
37- — Anne, Lady Cope.
By T. Gibson.
Inscribed on the back " Lady (Anne) Cope, wife of Sir John
n. ob. 1 713."
In a blue dress richly embroidered in gold ; lace cap, and large
veil hanging down on each side of her face. She is here represented
as aged ; sitting under a crimson canopy.
Daughter of Philip Booth, and wife of Sir John Cope the 5th
Bart. She died 171 3.
38. — Sir John Cope, 5th Bart.
Inscribed on the back: "Sir John Cope ii., Bart., ob, 1721.
^tat 87."
In armour, crossed with a red scarf; the right hand on his
helmet on a table ; the left holds the hilt of his sword. In the
back-ground a fortress, and several horsemen.
His history and that of his Lady (the preceding portrait) is a
curious one.
He was the second son of Sir John Cope, the 3rd Baronet, by
Lady Elizabeth Fane, his second wife. He was born at Hanwell,
in Oxfordshire, the ancient seat of the family, on the 19th November
1634, and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. His subsequent
story is thus narrated by himself: —
" Having spent many years of my youth in travell beyond the
seas, in France,*'' Italy,*'-' Germany, Flanders, and Holland, I returned
home with a great desire and a firm resolution to marry, but with
the consent and approbation of my friends and relations, and in
order thereunto proposed several matches to my elder brother. Sir
(I.) (( ^ brief description of what he saw most remarkable in France, 1654," remains in
manuscript in the library at Bramshill. It is dedicated to his mother. Lady Elizabeth Cope.
'^'In his coijy of the learned Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher's " Magneticum Naturse
Regnum," he has noted " Dono dedit ingeniosissimus Author propria manu in Museo
in Romi,, Junii 7, 1670."

S3
Anthony Cope, then living.*'-' But he not complying with any of
them nor consenting to make any settlement upon me in marriage
whereby he might better my fortune (though his own children were
all dead), I did thereupon contract myself to one Mrs. Anne Booth,
a neighbouring gentlewoman, and took her to wife, but very privately,
least if my brother should come to know it he might have been so
farr displeased as to have given away his estate from me, having not
long before (as I was informed) cut off the entail."
This actually happened : for his brother, whom he succeeded
in the title, dying in 1675, left him only a life interest in his estates ;
and, rendering his issue by his wife, Anne Booth, incapable of
inheriting them, bequeathed them in remainder to a second cousin,
whose descendants still possess most of them. But alas ! for the
short-sightedness of family pride : the cousin, whom Sir Anthony
endowed with his estates, because he thought Anne Booth " a
neighbouring gentle woman " unfit to occupy the place of his noble
wife and mother, married in a few years the daughter of a London
Alderman, who carried on the trade of a goldsmith in a shop in
Fleet Street bearing the sign of " The Black Lion." *"'
On his brother's death, he goes on to say, he " did publickly own
his said wife and children, and with his said wife he lived faithfully
ever after (being above forty years), and he verily believes she did
the like to him, to their mutuall satisfaction."
At the cession of Dunkirk to the French, the subject of this
portrait was Captain of a troop of Horse there. He was elected
''¦'This is confirmed by an unexecuted marriage settlement, January 1664, on a
proposed marriage between him, John Cope, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John
Franklyn, of Moor Place, Herts, in the muniment-room at Bramshill. It is curious
that he should have preserved it. The lady survived the disappointment and married
— as he did,
<'•' Jonathan Cope of Ran ton Abbey, Staffordshire, married Susan, daughter of
Alderman Sir Thcmas Fowle. Her mother was daughter of Roger Norton, the king's
printer.

84
rnember for Oxfordshire, on his brother's death, in his room ; which
he also represented in two other parliaments in Charles I I.'s reign.
And in the parliaments of William and Mary he twice sat for Banbury.
He seems to have been a man of considerable information. He
added largely to the " study of books " which his brother had
bequeathed to him, and purchased many books during his residence
abroad. Many of his books contain notes in his hand-writing. And
a MS. memorandum book of his contains notes of chemical and
other experiments and receipts. Above all he was evidently a
religious man, *'' and of vast charity ; for notwithstanding his
disinherison he sums up his remarkable will in these words :
" I leave the following advice as my chief legacy to all my
children, but more especially to my eldest son. Sir John Cope, Knt.
(viz.). In the first place, since they are so unfortunate as not
immediately to inheritt my paternal estate, they will consider how
many thousands in Great Britain who (though as well descended) are
not so well provided for. And therefore that they would be contented
with what I have left them, and bear no malice or hatred to those on
whom that estate is immediately settled after me. But, on the
contrary, shew all reciprocall love and friendship towards them if
their behaviour deserves it, and particularly in shewing them any
writings in their custodys which may be of use for them to see relating
to the estate. And above all to avoid going to law with them or
anybody else, if it may possibly be avoided without great detrimeht
to themselves. And I do hereby strictly charge and require all my
children upon my blessing that they love one another and give to
each other their best advice and assistance at all times."
So far as I know, or have ever heard, this injunction, as it were
from the grave, has been blest in its effect, and his descendants have
lived in peace and harmony.
"' The Library at Bramshill, contains his " Opinion Concerning Religion," in MS.,
addressed to his mother, Lady Elizabeth.

§5
He lived to a great age, dying on the nth January, 1721, in
his 87th year. He had seen and could remember six sovereigns,
¦ from Charles I. to George I. on the throne of England, besides
the Rebellion and the Protectorate of Cromwell. *'' He lies buried in
the vault at Eversley, which he had caused to be prepared seventeen
years before his death, and to which his much loved wife, Anne Booth,
had preceded him eight years. To its marble covering he affixed
the following inscription : Posteritati Sacrum.
Memor fragelitatis vitse humante
cum non procul abesset
ab anno setatis 70
et hunc locum sepulturse deligisset
Vivus
Monumentum hoc marmoreum
cum subjecto conditorio
sibi et posteris
poni curavit
Johannes Cope, Baronettus
Anno Dom. 1704.
Tu quoq : viator quisquis es
Memento Mori.
-i,^.— Charles, Earl of Peterborough. ^^ Amiconi. '=¦'
Full length ; in general's uniform ; his foot on a cannon, in his
right hand a baton ; and pointing with his left towards some ships at
sea. The celebrated General in the Spanish war in Queen Anne's time,
" whose eccentric career was destined to amuse Europe." *3' He was
uncle of Penelope Cope (29). He died 1735.
40. — Mrs. Poyntz and her Son.
By Mary Grace.
'¦•' He was more than fourteen when Charles r. was put to death ; when he died
George I. had been more than five years on the throne.
'='¦' I am not quite sure whether this is the original or a copy.
''' Macaulay's History of England ii. 33.

§6
Full length. She is represented as Minerva, in a short yellow dress
and crimson mantle ; her short green under-petticoat is looped up to
shew her naked left leg, and sandalled feet. Her red-plumed helmet
and shield are on the ground. In her right hand she holds a spear ;
her left is on her son William Poyntz, represented as about twelve
years of age, in a blue court suit embroidered with silver.
Anna Maria, daughter of the Honourable Lewis Mordaunt, niece
of Lord Peterborough and first-cousin of Penelope Cope (29). She
was married to Stephen Poyntz, of Midgham in Berkshire, and died
in 1771. She was known as " the Fair Circassian," from a poem with that
title dedicated to her. Horace Walpole mentions her by that name,
in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, and adds in a note: "A young
gentleman of Oxford wrote the ' Fair Circassian ' on her, and died
for love of her." *'' Elsewhere he observes : " she had been a great
beauty ; the poem of the ' Fair Circassian ' was written by a gentleman
who was in love with her." *^-'
The poem of " The Fair Circassian " was written by Samuel
Croxhall, and first published (anonymously) with a dedication to her
in 1720. He did not " die for love of her," but lived to become a
Doctor of Divinity. The poem is exceedingly " broad," as the phrase
now is ; and one wonders, even in this latter part of the nineteenth
century when breadth in poetry and prose is only too common, that a
poem so grossly indelicate should have been addressed to a young
lady, the niece of one of the most noted and distinguished noblemen
of the day, and should have run through, at least, six editions : the
sixth published when she had been for years the wife of Mr. Poyntz.
In her husband's apartments in St. James's Palace, and no doubt
in her presence, her eccentric uncle. Lord Peterborough, disclosed
his private marriage to the beautiful Anastasia Robinson, and
acknowledged her as his wife.
''' Walpole's Letters (ed. 1857), ii. 233.
''¦' Walpole's George iii. vol. i. 238.

87
41. — Mr. Helyar Wadham Wyndham.
Half length. In brown velvet coat,^ white satin waistcoat ; the
right hand in the pocket, the left on his sword ; his hat under his
left arm. Architectural back-ground.
Son of Mr. Wyndham of Yateley (36), and brother of Anne,
Lady Cope (16).
42. — A Lady, un-named.
Portrait of a young person in a yellow dress ; pearl necklace.
43. — Lady Monotix.
In blue dress, and red mantle.
Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton, and grand-daughter of
Sir Robert Cotton, the collector of the Cottonian Library ; wife of
Sir Humphrey Monoux, Bart., and mother of Alice, Lady Cope (56).
44. — The Honourable Mrs. Mordaunt. By Sir Godfrey Kneller.
In loose yellow dress, blue scarf, white under sleeves ; her left
hand on a bunch of jessamine ; landscape back-ground.
Penelope, daughter of William Tipping, Esq., of Ewelme, and
Elizabeth (35) his wife. She was the second wife of the Honourable
General Mordaunt, and mother of Penelope, wife of Sir Monoux
Cope. She died two years after her marriage, aged 25, at Bath, in
1713-
45. — Lady Goitld.
In loose red dress, green mantle, white under sleeves ; dark hair
in curls at the back ; landscape back-ground.
Inscribed on the back : " Frances, daughter of Sir Humphrey
Monnoux, B*- wife of Sir Edward Gould."
After his death she married James Venables, of Woodcote, Hants,
Esq. She was sister to Alice, Lady Cope (56).
46. — William, jrd Earl of Pembroke. g y^^^ Somer
Full length. In black, with white collar turned back ; gold
sword belt ; ribbon and jewel of the Garter, and the garter on his

88
left leg ; the left hand holds his hat, the right the staff as Lord
Chamberlain to James I.; yellow gloves, white shoes with large black
bows. He is represented in a hall, the open windows of which shew
a landscape. On the key-stone of an arch are the arms of Herbert.
He was son of
" The subject of all verse,
Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother."
He bore a great and amiable character, and was the most
universally esteemed and beloved of any man of that age. He died
universally lamented in 1630.
47. — Posthumus and Imogen.
By William Hamilton.
CymbeHne, Act i.. Scene ii.
Painted for BoydeH's Shakespeare GaHery, and engraved by
Thomas Burke, though I believe that it is not inserted in BoydeH's
Edition of Shakespeare.
Great Drawing Room.
48. — View of Rome, the Vatican, &c.
By Canaletti "'
49. — A Sea Piece.
By Allan Ramsay.
On the right a large ship, under sail, English flag, firing her
guns ; near her another large ship, with the English flag, in half sail ;
on the left a third ship, lower in the water. All these are men of war.
On the left foreground a boat under sail, on the right foreground two
boats pulled by sailors in white jackets. Near the largest ship two
small vessels. In the distance other ships. The prominent ship is
the Queen Charlotte.
''¦' In the old catalogue it is ascribed to Accali ; but I can find no account of any
painter of that name ; and I am assured by those whose opinion is entitled to weight,
that it is probably by Canaletti,

89
Library.
50. — Sir Anthony Cope, 4th Bart.
In a close yellow coat fastened with clasps ; a red mantle ; and
a peruke. He leans his left arm on the pedestal of a column.
Landscape back-ground.
He was born in 1632, the eldest son of the 3rd Baronet by his
second wife Lady Elizabeth Fane.
Shortly before the Restoration he took an active part in the
communications held between the exiled King and his adherents in
England ; and many private meetings of these loyaHsts were held at
his seat at Hanwell. The messenger employed on these missions was
his Chaplain, Richard Allestree, afterwards Canon of Christ Church and
Provost of Eton. Bishop Fell (of Oxford), in his Life of Allestree,
states that, having joined Dolben, afterwards Archbishop of York,
and Fell himself, in maintaining privately the service of the Church
at Oxford, *'' Allestree " continued with them till such time as Sir
Anthony Cope, a loyal young gentleman of quality and fortune in the
county of Oxford, prevailed upon him to live in his family, which he
did for several years having liberty to go or stay as his occasions
required. Whereby he was enabled to step aside without notice upon
messages from the King's friends, which service he managed with
great courage and dexterity." *°-'
In the Convention Parliament, which met in April 1660, and
which effected the Restoration, Sir Anthony was returned for Banbury.
In the next Parliament, which met in the following year, he was
elected for Oxfordshire, and continued to represent that county till
his death. In recognition, no doubt, of his endeavours to promote
the Restoration he was selected to be one of t'he Knights of the
Royal Oak; an order which Charles II. intended to institute; but

''¦' A well-known picture in the Hall of Christ Church represents these three Divines
saying the services of the Church.
(=¦) Fell's Life of Allestree, prefixed to his Sermons. These secret meetings and
ransactions at Hanwell are fully described in Beesley's History of Banbury, pp. 47 1-474.
M

90
which design he was afterwards induced to lay aside, lest it might
kindle jealousies and animosities which were smouldering, or dying out.
He also retained in his family as Chaplain another loyalist
clergyman, George Ashwell, whom he presented to the Rectory of
HanweU in 1658. AshweH was a man of learning, and author of
several theological works. And in one of them "Gestus Eucharisticus,"
dedicated to Sir Anthony, he speaks of his "known zeal for main
taining the good Orders of the Church," and his "Exemplary reverence
at the public Service and particularly at this Sacrament ; " and also
of " the influence which his suffrage and authority had in reviving
the ancient law for the kneeling thereat."
But it was not only to loyalists and learned Divines that Sir
Anthony extended his hospitality and patronage ; he was the means
of introducing into England the modern style of violin playing. For
when Thomas Baltzar of Lubeck, who was esteemed the first violinist
of his time, arrived in England in 1658, Sir Anthony brought him
to Hanwell, and he lived there about two years.*'' Baltzar was the
first violinist who in England had practiced and taught shifting ; and
Anthony a'Wood mentions the amazement with which he saw him
run his fingers to the end of the finger-board of the violin, and then
run back with alacrity and in very good tune, " which," he says, " he
nor any in England ever saw before."
Besides his patronage of loyalists and musicians. Sir Anthony
seems to have kept up sport and lived in some state at Hanwell. The
register ofthe church there records the burial of the "falconer to Sir
Anthy Cope," and the Baptism of his " Blackmore [black-a-moor] by
ye name of Thomas."
He died in 1675, and was buried at Hanwell with a costly funeral.
5 1 . — John Cope, second son of the 6th Baronet, inscribed on the back :
" John Cope, son of Sir John Cope, Bart. obt. lydo. yEtat SS"
''¦' Baltzar afterwards became master of King Charles the Second's band, and died
in 1683.

He is here represented about i6 years of age ; in, a white satin
coat embroidered in gold, lace neck-cloth and ruff.
He was gentleman-usher to George II., and died suddenly in his
carriage between London and Hampton Court.
52. — Anne Cope, daughter of the 6th Baronet.
Sister of the foregoing; and afterwards Mrs. Bethel. See 18.
She is here represented about 20 years of age ; in a pink dress.
53- — Anthony Cope, second son of the ^th Baronet.
Inscribed " T. Gibson pinx, 1729." On the strainer is his own
monogram. Dark blue coat, red vest, and blue cap. See 64.
54- — Anne Cope, wife of the preceding.
Marked " T. Gibson pinx, 1729."
Inscribed on the back "daughter of Mr. Spinkes, and wife to
Anthony Cope, Esq. ob : 1758."
In yellow, with blue mantle.
She was daughter of Nathaniel Spinckes, a clergyman who was
deprived of his preferments in 1690, for refusing to take the oaths to
WiHiam III, He was afterwards consecrated Bishop among the non
jurors. He wrote many, theological, controversial and devotional
works. *'¦'
55. — Sir Robert Cotton.
Arms on the front. Cotton, with crest, and marked : "Sir
Robert Cotton, Post Master Gen^- to King WiHiam, 1696."
He was grandson of Sir Robert Cotton, the celebrated antiquary ;
and uncle of Alice, Lady Cope (56).
56. — Alice, Lady Cope.
In a pale pink dress, with blue mantle. She was daughter of Sir
Humphrey Monoux, Bart. ; and wife of the 6th Bart. (57), whom she sur
vived only a week, dying on the i6th December 1749, in her 79th year.
''•' Some MS. sermons by him are in the library at Bramshill, and some of his printed
works which belonged to this daughter.

A beautiful picture of a beautiful person ; painted probably about
the time of her marriage, when she was about 26.
57. — Sir John Cope, 6th Baronet.
Husband of the preceding.
Arms on the front. Cope impaling Monoux. In blue drapery,
with a long peruke.
He was eldest son of the 5th Baronet. He was educated at
Oriel College, Oxford^ and about the year 1691 went abroad, and
for two years studied at Wolfenbiittel ; whence he afterwards made
the "grand tour" to "most of the Courts of Italy and Germany."
On his return he was knighted (as the eldest son of a Baronet)
by King WiHiam the Third, at Kensington, in January, 1696 ; and
in July of that year married the beautiful Alice Monoux ; and three
years afterwards purchased Bramshill. He sat in Parliament for
many years, part of the time as Member for Hampshire. He died
on the 8th December, 1 749, just one week before his wife, being
about the same age, 79.
58. — Sir John Cope, the 5th Baronet.
On the front. " ^tat ']t^."
In a blue mantle, turned back with pink.
See his history, 38.
59. — Anne (Booth) Lady Cope.
His wife. Inscribed on the back " Lady (Anne) Cope, wife of
Sir John Cope, ii. ob : 171 3."
In blue dress, white and yellow scarf, pink mantle ; and grey hair.
This picture was probably painted at the same time as the
preceding one of her husband, when she would be about sixty-two
years of age. It is very different from the portrait of her in youthful
beauty (61). Her face here is stamped with the traces of the grief
which the disinherison of her children (on her account), the murder of
one of her sons, and the deaths of others of her children, had brought
upon her.

60. — Sir John Cope.
Same person as 58. Inscribed on the back : " Sir John Cope, ii."
He is here represented as about 30. In a yellow coat, white
neckcloth tied with pink ribbon ; long hair.
61. — Anne (Booth) Lady Cope.
Same person as 59.
She is here represented in her youth and beauty ; in 59, past
middle age ; in 37 in " the sere and yellow leaf"
Next follow portraits of four of their surviving sons.
62. — William Cope.
In blue coat embroidered in gold ; and short peruke.
Fourth surviving son of the 5th Bart. He was appointed
Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, 25th April, 1706; and on the
6th June following being on guard at the Tower of London, he invited
some friends to spend the evening with him there. One of them
brought with him one John Mawgridge. Some wine was sent for,
and while Mr. Cope's friends were enjoying themselves, a woman (of
no modest reputation as may be imagined) arrived at the guard-rooni
door, and desired to see him. On her entrance Mawgridge insulted
her, both by offering to salute her, and, on her resisting, by giving her
bad language. Mr. Cope interfered to protect her from his rudeness ;
on which Mawgridge turned his invectives on him ; and amongst
other things demanded immediate satisfaction for what he deemed an
insult. Mr. Cope replied that the present was neither a fit time nor
place ; but that on another occasion he would not refuse it. On this
Mawgridge was leaving the guard-room, but as he did so, he seized a
bottle that was on the table and threw it at Mr. Cope, and struck
him on the head ; and instantly after he drew his sword, and (in spite
of the endeavours of one of the guests, named Martin, to prevent him)
pierced Mr. Cope through the left breast and killed him on the spot.
On this Mawgridge was tried ; and the jury found a special
verdict, stating the facts as proved in evidence, and their uncertainty
whether the crime was manslaughter, or amounted to wilful murder.

94
The record was removed into the court of Queen's Bench, and
the case was argued before the twelve judges ; who were all (with
the exception of Chief Justice Trevor) of opinion that Mawgridge
was guilty of murder.
Judgment was delivered at great length by Chief Justice Holt ;
and process was issued against Mawgridge, or if he was not retaken to
proceed to out-lawry. For after the trial, but before this decision of
the judges, Mawgridge had escaped out of the Marshalsea, where
he was imprisoned ; had disguised himself by staining his face with
walnut-juice ; had walked thirty miles by night into Essex ; and, by a
bribe from his father of a hundred guineas, had induced the master of
a vessel at Colchester to convey him to Holland. Here he skulked
for some eighteen months, and, as he spoke French and Spanish
fluently, escaped detection. But, at last, being at a tavern at
Ghent, where there was at that time a strong garrison of English
troops, including some of the Foot Guards, and in his cups speaking
EngHsh fluently, he was suspected and detained. Having been
recognised and identified, and eventually brought to England, he
was placed at the bar, sentenced to death, and executed at Tyburn
on the 28th April, 1708: nearly two years after he had committed
the murder.*'-' At the time he was murdered William Cope was 22 years of age.
63. — Galen Cope.
He is represented in a murrey coat and blue waistcoat embroidered
with silver. He is pointing with a roH inscribed " La Vera Cruz,
1729," to a ship with a red ensign and three red burgees, which is
firing at the shore.
Seventh and youngest son of the 5th Baronet. He was first
in the army — a "Captain of Horse" it is said — but afterwards
''-' A Life of Mawgridge — written by some one much prejudiced in his favour — was
published in r7o8, 8vo, London ; this and a MS. report ofthe arguments and judgments
in the Queen's Bench are in the library at Bramshill.

95
entering into Holy Orders, he was presented by his brother Sir
John Cope to the Rectory of Eversley. He died in 1735, at the
age of 45.
64.-Anthony Cope. ^^ Vanderbank.
In brown ; in the left hand a book marked " Corelli."
Inscribed on the back : " Anthony Cope, Esq., son of Sir John
Cope ii., Bart. ob. Jan. 1750. ^tat yy."
The same person as 53. After studying with his eldest
brother at Wolfenbiittel, he became a Turkey merchant ; and seems,
from a notice of him in Hearne's Diary, to have resided for some
time at Constantinople. By his will he bequeathed to his nephew.
Sir Monoux Cope, his books " to be added to his Library at
Bramsell;" the "half length of his mother [59] his own and his
wife's "picture by Gibson [53, 54] and [this] his "own picture
by Vanderbank." His mention of his collection of musical instruments
perhaps explains the inscription " Correlli " in the portrait.
65. — Charles Cope.
In green velvet.
Holding a paper inscribed "J. Vanderbanck, pinx. 1722."
Inscribed on the back " Charles Cope, Esq., son of Sir John Cope,
n. ob. 1764. ^t. 83."
66. — Mary, Lady Cope.
Half length. In yeHow dress, blue scarf, white under-sleeves,
pearl neck-lace, brooch, and sleeve-brooches. Her right hand in
water in a shell, which is filled from a fountain. The hair in curls-
Landscape back-ground.
Daughter of Dutton Lord Gerard, of Gerard's Bromley in
Staffordshire, and wife of Sir Anthony Cope, the 4th Baronet (50).
They were first cousins, their mothers having been daughters of the
1st Earl of Westmoreland. They outlived all their children, three
sons and a daughter ; *'' and to the record of the burial of the last in
'¦•' \ have preserved the epitaphs of two of these children in appendix V,

96
the Register of Hanwell a later hand has added : " which loss proved
fatal to him [Sir Anthony] and his Lady." It brought him to an
untimely grave at the age of 43 ; and grief for the loss of her
husband and children bereft her of her reason. She lived on,
however, to old age, under the care of the Honourable William
Spencer, who had married her sister, and died at Hanwell in 17 14:
" the last possessor of the family estate " as is noted in the Register,
" who resided in this Parish." *'-'
67. — Sir John Cope, 6th Bart.
The same person as 57. Inscribed on the back "Sir John Cope,
Bart. Hi. ob. Dec. 9, 1749. ^t. 78."
68. — Alice, Lady Cope.
Wife of the above, and the same person as 56, but a much
inferior picture.
Inscribed on the back: "Alice, D""- of Sir Humphrey Monoux,
wife to Sir John Cope iii., Bart. ob. Dec. 17, 1749. Mt. 79."
69. — A young man, un-named.^'^^
Portrait of a youth in a blue coat, clasped down the front, and
yellow mantle, with a long peruke. The costume is of Charles I I.'s
time. Gallery.
70. — King George II.
Half length.
7 1 . — Nero.
Copy from Titian.
72. — Preparations for the Chase.
''•' Hanwell passed by her husband's will to another branch of the family, and was
palled down about 1770, except one tower, now a farm house. A drawing of it before
its demolition hangs in the Gallery at Bramshill, which is engraved (not very accurately)
in Skelton's Oxfordshire. See a further account of Hanwell, Appendix vi.
'"¦' Called in an old catalogue " Philip Cope " : an utter mistake, for Philip Cope, the
son of the 6th Bart., died in 1713, aged only two years and a half.

97
1^. — Roman Baths with Figures. By Pannini.
The effect of this picture, as a furniture picture, is excellent, when
viewed from any part of the long vista extending from this Gallery to
the Chapel-room.
74. — View of St. Peter s at Rome.
This is an interesting picture, as it exhibits the fagade of St.
Peter's after it was completed in 162 1, but before Bernini added the
colonnade about 1657. The Egyptian Obelisk and one of Carlo
Maderno's fountains are seen ; the Vatican is shewn, and as the
Mosaic of the Navicella, which was placed by Urban VIIL in the
interior of the Church, is here shewn as external and over the entrance
to the Vatican, it is evident that the picture was painted before 1644.
In the Piazza are many figures : a Cardinal in his carriage ; Ladies ;
Ecclesiastics, the Pope's guards, &c. in the costume of the period.
Opposite to this picture hangs a large engraving with external
and internal views of St. Peter's, which shew the changes that have
taken place since it was painted.
75. — Abigail meeting David. By Old Francks.
76. — Roman Baths with Figures. By Pannini.
A match picture to 73.
']']. — Augustus Ccssar. A copy from Titian.
This and 71 are old copies of two of Titian's set of Ceesars,
78. — Preparations for the Chase.
In the Gallery, besides a number of old engravings, are six
water-colour pictures of Bramshill House and Park :
i.^ — -View of the Terrace.
Marked on the back "Cattermole" ; but probably by an imitator
of his style.
N

98
II. — Camp of a flying column in the Park, i86g. By Mrs. Marrable.
III. — View of the Bridge, in the Great Avenue. By J. W. Sage.
IV. — View of the House from the Garden-pond. By Major R. Petley.
v. — View of the Gate-way and Lodges of the Great Avenue. By J. W. Sage.
VI. — View of the House from the South-east.
By the Honourable Lady St. John Mildmay.
Chapel Room.
79 — Sir John Cope, nth Bart.
Painted when a young man. Died 1851.
80. — Kino- Charles II.

By Sir Peter Lely. Lely.Lely.

8 1 . — Katharine of Braganza, his Queen.
82. — Nell Gwyn.
In loose dark yellow drapery.
83. — Mr. Tipping. By William Dobson.
One of Dobson's best portraits, and very much in the manner
of Vandyke, by whom he was recommended to Charles I. The hands
are beautifully modelled. The left rests on the head of a large dog.
It probably represents John Tipping, of Wheatfield, in Oxfordshire,
who died before his father. Sir George Tipping, and whose descendant
married Sir Monoux Cope.
84. — The Countess of Ossory. By Sir Peter Lely.
In white, with a blue scarf over her left shoulder.
Emilia de Nassau, wife of the Earl of Ossory, son of the great
Duke of Ormond.

99
85. — Lucy Walters.
Lely.
In brown. The hair in curls, with two long ringlets hanging
over the shoulders.
Mother, by King Charles II., of the Duke of Monmouth.
A good portrait of this handsome but bold-looking woman.
86. — Lady Pratt.
Lely.
Margaret, daughter of Sir Humphrey Forster, of Aldermaston,
and wife of Sir George Pratt, of Coleshill, Berks.
^y. — Mrs. Spencer.
Anne Greenwood, widow of John Spencer, Esq. She was great
aunt of Sir John Cope, nth Bart. (79). She died 1729.
It seems incredible that any known English painter ofthe period,
and anterior to Reynolds, should have painted this portrait, and
coloured in a style which was then unattempted in this country. But
as I observe by her brother, John Greenwood's, will that he resided at
Leghorn, and died at Naples, it is possible that it may have been
painted while she was abroad with him, and may be the work of some
Italian artist.
88. — Spring.
By Paul Brill.
A canal with bridges. On the right an entrance to a Chateau :
in the fore-ground a cavalier meets a lady ; several other figures, one of
which holds a horse.
89. — King Henry VIIL
A small copy on copper, of a picture by Plolbein.
90. — Summer.
By Paul Brill,
On the right, on rising ground, a cornfield, in which are reapers.
In the fore-ground a gentleman on horseback, having a, hawk on his
left hand, attended by a servant and accompanied by a dog. In the
left corner a woman, in a red bodice and black petticoat, gives fruit

tod
to a boy. Beyond is a river, in which several persons are bathing.
In the back-ground two bridges, and distant landscape.
91. — Autumn.
By Paul Brill.
In the fore-ground a gentleman on horseback, in a red cloak and
hood, superintends the vintage, and is addressed by one of the
workmen ; a cooper puts a hoop on a cask ; on the right an old man
with a basket on his back ; beyond him a flock of sheep. In the left
hand corner two women are pouring fruit into baskets. Beyond them
another woman is about to ascend a flight of steps leading to the
gardens of a Chateau,.
92. — King Edward VI.
A small copy, on copper of a picture by Holbein.
93. — Winter.
By Paul Brill.
On rising ground on the right a Chdteati, the roofs covered with
snow. On the road from which a lady, with a black half mask and
red-tippet edged with white fur, is driven in a sleigh by a servant ;
another sleigh follows with a lady similarly attired. On the moat
several persons are skating. Towards the left fore-ground two men
and a woman are killing a pig. In the extreme left corner a woman
is drawing water from a well, by a rope and pulley fixed to the
bough of a large tree.
94. — Portrait.
Called in the old catalogues " Fair Rosamond," which it most
certainly is not.
In an under robe of black, and an open gown of crimson, richly
embroidered with pearls and trimmed with ermine. The under sleeve
of white linen is, at the wrist, richly decorated, and terminates in a
lace ruffle. On her breast is a closed and jewelled royal crown, from
which hangs a richly jewelled ornament. Her close fitting quoif,
trimmed with pearls, is peaked over her forehead. Her left hand
holds a golden cup, from which her right has lifted the cover. The

lOl
costume is strictly that of the reign of Henry VIII.*'-'; and there is
every reason to believe that it is a portrait of Queen Katherine Parr,
to whom Sir Anthony Cope, grandfather of the ist Baronet, was
Chamberlain of the Household.*''
95. — Sir William H. Cope, 12th Bart.
By Alexander Rowan.
97- — Portrait.
CaHed in the old catalogues " Jane Shore." There is an inferior
replica or copy of this picture at Hampton Court, equally absurdly
named. It represents a lady, with the face, of considerable beauty, almost
in profile. Her hair is reddish. The costume is of the time of Queen
Elizabeth. The collaf, open at the neck, has a quilled ruff". The
black dress, trimmed with miniver, has the upper part of the bodice
richly embroidered. A transparent stiff" veil covers the upper part of
the face and extends considerably in front.
It is said to be a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots.
g?>.—Lucretia. After Guido.
Seen to the waist. With the left hand she bares her bosom, into
which, with the right, she plunges the dagger.
An early copy of a picture by Guido, which I am informed was
destroyed by a fire in a Cardinal's palace at Rome about sixty
years ago.
99. — An Alchemist's Laboratory. Old Teniers.
On the left an aged man blows the fire in a brazier with bellows.
Near him another man pours something from a bottle into an earthen
jar. In the middle back-ground are two other persons ; and on the
right two persons sit at a table on which is an ojaen book. Around
are various implements of the art ; skulls of animals, &c.
''¦' Fairholt's Costume in England, 244.
'^¦' Parkhursti Ludicra sive Epigrammata juvenilia, 1573.

102
loo. — A Moonlight Scene.
A. Vanderneer.
On the left a Chateau ; in the door-way a woman stands with a
candle in her hand, lighting a man who descends the steps. Near
him a cow and a pig, and some figures with a dog. In the fore-ground
a man and woman coming down the village street. On the right a
river, out of which a woman is drawing water. Buildings on each
side ; and in the distance the tower of a Church.
loi. — Diana and Calisto. Rubens.
A small repetition on copper of his great picture in the Museo at
Madrid. *'-'
It is well known that Rubens retained small copies, by his own
hand, of many of his favourite pictures, and that they were dispersed
at his death by his widow.
1 02 . — Landscape.

Signed and dated.
103. — A halt of beggars near a ruin.

By Henry Ashford.

Dutch School.

104. — A fresh breeze. By William Vandervelde.
A ship with a red ensign at the poop, and St. George's Cross
at the bow-sprit ; just behind another ship crosses on the opposite
tack. In the distance three vessels on the right, and four on the left.
105, 106, 107, 108. — Four French painted fans in frames.
109. — Sketch of a Magdalene.
no. — Miniature of Mary, Qtt,een of Scots.
On ivory. Round the edge is : Maria Regina Scotorum.
Inscribed on the back : Drawn by Miss Williamson.

(>•)

" Catalogo de los Cuadros del Real Museo, No 17 16," where it is fully described.

Copied by her from an early miniature; of which there is a copy
in the Queen's collection at Windsor, which bears on the back the
following inscription in the artist's handwriting : " Mary Queen of
Scotland by leave of his Grace Duke Hanlbleton, in whose hands
y° originall is ; taken out of her strong box after she was Beheaded,
after y" Originall Bernard Lens London Fecit Oct. 31 1710."
Ill . — Miniature of Henry, Prince of Wales. By Isaac Oliver,
Inscribed on the back in a contemporary hand " Prince Henry,
brother to King Charles that was murdered."
A most beautiful specimen of Oliver's pencil.
112.—^ Battle-piece. B^ Palamedes.
In the fore-ground three horsemen with drawn swords, one on a
white horse ; a wounded Turk lies on his face on the ground. Many
figures of horsemen in the back -ground. On panel, 4^ inches by 3^^.
113. — Queen Henrietta Maria.
She is in black with a white kerchief; a transparent black veil,
which crosses the forehead, and hangs down over the neck and
shoulders. In her hand a black heart. She is evidently represented
as a widow ; and it seems to be one of the portraits mentioned by
Agnes Strickland. Queens of England, vol., viii., 238-9.
114. — Georgiana, Countess Spencer, and her daughter Georgiana, after
wards the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire.
On glass. This is Watson's print of Sir Joshua Reynolds'
picture, at Althorp. It has been coloured after the original, and
transferred to the glass, by a process described in a book called
" The art of painting in water colours .... with instructions
for painting on glass," Lond. 1788.
115. — A sea port.
On the right a tower, and a vessel alongside. Others under sail
in the distance. Many figures in the fore-ground. On panel, 9 inches
by 6}^.

I04
1 1 6. — Landscape. ^ By Richard Wilson.
A river, with a large extent of country in the distance. The
right bank wooded in the fore -ground. A man is seen in a boat.
On panel, 12 inches by 9.
1 1 7. — Landscape. Dutch School.
A river scene. On the further bank two cottages, and (more
distant) farm buildings. In the fore-ground are two boats, in which
are three figures, one of whom is sinking a jar in the river. In the left
hand corner a man and a boy sit on the near bank ; near them a basket.
118. — An A'mbtish.
In a winter landscape a baggage train, accompanied by an escort
of Cavalry, is attacked by several horsemen issuing from behind a
windmill on the left, and by foot-soldiers concealed in a ditch. In the
fore-ground a horse has fallen wounded, and its rider is making his
escape. Just beyond, two prominent horsemen are closely engaged,
and fire pistols at each other. A trumpeter on each side sounds an
alarm or charge. In the left corner are the skull and skeleton of a
horse ; on the right, pollard trees and a well-house. On panel.
119. — A light-house. By Adrian Van Diest.
A tower ; another on a high cliff" to the left. Several small vessels
in a creek or harbour. On the right a man, dressed in red, standing
on a rock, hails the boatmen.
1 20. — Our Saviour blessing little children. By an imitator of Paul Veronese.
1 2 1 . — Landscape. By J. G. Hart.
A rocky glen ; in the fore-ground a river falls in a cascade over
rocks. 123. — Hugh Bethel, son of Mrs. Bethel (18), daughter of Sir John
Cope, 6th Bart.
He is represented as an infant,

105
122,.— Philip Cope, son of Sir John Cope, 6th Bart.
He died in 1714, aged two years and a half.
124. — Mrs. Tipping.
In a yellow dress ; beside her a beehive.
This picture in size, disposition, and frame matches that of her
husband (83). It is however so much inferior to it, that it can scarcely
be from the hand of the same painter. It is probably the portrait
of Anne, daughter of Sir Christopher Pigott, and wife of John Tipping.
125. — Susanna Cope. By A. Pope.
Daughter of William Handcock, wife of Joseph Cope, and mother
of WiHiam Cope (8), died 1 794.
Sitting in a crimson chair, in dove-coloured satin dress, lace
ruffles. The arms bare to the elbows ; on the left arm a black fur
muff", and round the neck a boa to match. Both hands seen, crossed ;
in the right a book inscribed Common Prayer. A round lace cap.
An admirably painted portrait.
126. — The Ascension, and the incredulity of St. Thomas. By Verrio.
Evidently a design for a ceiling : probably for the Chapel here.
In a circle, our blessed Lord ascends, supported and surrounded by
Angels ; some of whom play on musical instruments. Below the
incredulity of St. Thomas is painted en grisaille. On one side St.
John the Evangelist with the Eagle ; on the other St. Matthew
attended by the Angel.
A very favourable specimen of Verrio's painting. The Ascension
and attendant Angels are like a bouquet of flowers, so bright and
harmonious is the colouring.
127. — Henry Cope.
Died 1775.
He was a barrister. In lawyer's gown and bands, and full wig
powdered. Son of WHliam Cope and Mrs. Honor Cope (26).

io6
128, — William Cope, Cofferer of the Household to King Henry VII.
He is habited in a black gown, a black cap and feather. He
holds in his left hand a purse, from Vi^hich hangs an ornament with
a crown. Inscribed ^tatis sve 36. William Cope of Hanwell in the
County of Oxon. Cofferer to King Henry the 7tpi.*'-' And on
the back is written in an early hand : William Cope died 1513.
In the old catalogue this picture is ascribed to Holbein ; but
at William Cope's death that painter was but fifteen years old.
The question is not without interest — Who could have painted this
portrait at a time so much anterior to Holbein? For the inscription
states that the Cofferer was then thirty-six. As his eldest son,
Stephen Cope, of Bedhampton in Hampshire, is recorded *'•' to have
been of the age of forty years and upwards at his father's death in
1513- WHHam Cope's birth cannot be put much later than 1450; and
the portrait must consequently have been painted about i486. I do
not know -that any painter flourished in England at that period to
whom this picture can be attributed. It is possible, certainly, that in
his office of Cofferer he may have gone abroad on the King's business,
and that there the portrait may have been painted ; as we find him
in 1505 accompanying Margaret, the Queen of the Scots, the King's
daughter, to the border, if not into Scotland, in order to pay her
dower, on her marriage with King James IV. <3'
Green Bed-chamber.
129. — Two Miss Tippings.
Two of the seven daughters of Sir Thomas Tipping, of
Wheatfield, in Oxfordshire.
''•'All the latter words of this inscription seem of a later character and date than
the record of age. And in fact William Cope was not possessor of Hanwell till r502.
''''Inquis. post mortem, 5 Hen. VIIL, Nos. 31.
<*' Rot. Scot. Hen. VIL, No. 5.

107
In the affected style of the time. One is painted as a shepherdess
with a crook, and a lamb beside her ; the other holding fruit and
flowers.
130. — Joseph Justus Scaliger.
The face in profile. In black, with a red robe. An open book
before him, inscribed with Hebrew characters. In his right hand a pen.
The following verses were affixed to the back of this portrait,
A few words having become illegible or torn off are conjecturally
supplied in Italic. In
j. j. sc.\ugerum,
Hsec est Scaligeri mortem meditantis imago
Luminis hsec tanti vespera talis erat.
In vultu macies et tortor corporis Hydrops,
Sed tamen et magni conspicis ora viri.
Lseva tenet chartas Nabathaei munera vatis
Armatur calamo nunc quoque dextera suo.
Hsec est ilia manus, vitam cui tota vetustas
Debet, et a primo tempora ducta die ;
Quod si Scaligero meritis par vita daretur,
Non nisi cum mundo debuit ille mori.
Joseph Scaliger, the son of a father equally eminent for learning,
was a celebrated critic and man of letters. He first, in his work
" De emendatione temporum," rectified chronology on a philosophical
and scientific basis. He died in 1609.
Presented to Sir William Cope by the Rev. R. G. Davis.
131.- — Fruit.
In the centre a crystal vase ; surrounded with fruit. By Daniel Seghers.
132. — St. Mary Magdalene.
133. — Sir John Mordaunt Cope, Sth Bart.
He holds in his hand an official letter with his name and address.
He is in the uniform of the Hampshire Militia, of which he was
Colonel. He died in 1779.

io8
134. — Mrs. Pitt.
Elizabeth Wyndham, wife of William Pitt, and aunt of Anne
(Wyndham), Lady Cope (16).
A charming portrait of the same person as No. 14 in the Red
Drawing-room. She holds in her right hand a volume of the
"Spectator," open at No. 385, which contains an essay "on
Friendship " : a fitting attribute of this Lady, who seems, from some
of her papers in my possession, to have been of a most amHable
disposition, and loving to her friends. She died about 1765.
135. — Mr. Tipping.
I presume William Tipping, of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, whose
grand-daughter, Penelope Mordaunt (29) married the 7th Baronet.
Chapel.
136. — St. Paid.
137. — St. Peter.
Copies from pictures by Ugolino da Sienna, formerly in the
Church of Sta. Maria at Florence, and afterwards in the collection
of William Young Ottley ; painted by Alex. Rowan.
Presented to Sir WilHam Cope by the late Captain E. J. Ottley.
138. — The A nnunciation. Early German School.
The blessed Virgin kneels on the right of the picture, the dove
above her head ; on the left the angel Gabriel, habited in a white
surplice and a cope embroidered with gold, kneels holding in his
right hand a Sceptre. The Angelic Salutation on a scroll proceeds
from his left hand. Between these figures the pot of Hlies. Above
the Angel appears the bust of the Ancient of Days, with a cruciform
nimbus. The back-ground is gilt, stamped or engraved with a
diaper pattern.
Presented to Sir William Cope by Mr, J. H. Sperling.
139. — Holy Family.
A Byzantine Picture,

109
The blessed Virgin habited in the conventional robes of red
and blue, with her hands joined, adores the Divine Infant, who lies
extended on a cushion on her lap. Behind on the left, Joseph,
represented as a young man with a reddish beard. On the right a
fair youthful female, or an Angel. On panel, the back-ground gilt.
Presented to Sir William Cope by Capt. E. J. Ottley.
140. — The Woman standing on the Moon, as described in the xii.
chapter of the Revelations. By Zurbaran.
The subject generally called " The Immaculate Conception."
An excellent picture in Zurbaran's later style, when he imitated or
rivalled Murillo.
141. — Our Lord standing in the tomb, on one side the lance, on the
other the hyssop and sponge. On the left St. Thomas Aquinas,
in black, on his breast the golden sun. In his left hand he bears
the white lily branch. On the right St. Catharine of Sienna, in
black, habited as a nun, with white wimple ; in her left hand a
book, in her right a rosary. By Francia.
On panel. GHt back-ground. A beautiful picture. Presented
to Sir William Cope by Captain E. J. Ottley.
142. — The last Judgment. By Carlo Maratti.
Curious, as shewing the conventional treatment of this subject,
as depicted by medieval painters, continued, yet represented in so
different a style, by the last master of the Roman school.
143. — Healing the Blind. By Alexander Rowan.
144. — Our Lord taken down from the Cross. Early Dutch School.
Some of the figures are apparently unfinished.
145. — The Choice: Christ or Barabbas. By Alexander Rowan.

Wrought Room.
146. — Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Beckwith, K.C.B. Rifle
Brigade. Copy from a picture in the possession of Percy Beckwith, Esq.
147. — Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Barnard, K.C.B. Rifle
Brigade. Copy of a picture in the possession of Lady Barnard.
148. — General Sir Alfred H. Horsf ord, G.C.B. Rifle Brigade.
Water-colour drawings of the uniform of the Rifle Brigade from
the formation of the Regiment (in 1800) to the present time.
Stair-case.
149. — Abigail meeting David.
A picture much in the manner of Rubens ; and probably by
one of his scholars or imitators. First White Room,
150. — Thomas, Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor.
151. — Francis, Lord Veru,lam, Lord Chancellor.
Two contemporary- heads of these distinguished men.
Several engravings and drawings of Bramshill-house ; amongst
the rest one water-colour view of the Terrace and Terrace-front,
dated on the back 1771. Second White Room,
152. — St. George trampling on the Dragon.
153. — Diana,
Indifferent copies from old pictures.
Gun Room Lobby,
154. — A Battle between Cavaliers and Turks.

ni
Gun Room.
155. — An Embarkation.
On the left a lady, bareheaded, attended by two Cavaliers and
a dwarf, aH in the costume of the middle of the XVII. Century, is
led by one of the gentlemen towards a boat, which a seaman is
pulling to the shore. The scene appears to be the mouth of a river,
A ship at anchor bears at the mizen a white flag with a red cross
(not reaching to the edges) ; on the opposite bank, a city, with
Church towers, etc.
156. — Card Players. Dutch School.
Three men, seated at a table, are playing cards. In front, a
stool on which are a jug and pipe ; in the right hand corner a dog
lying on a chair.
157. — Windsor Castle, from the opposite bank of the Thames.
It appears to have been painted about the time of Charles II,
158. — The Rifle Brigade skirmishing in the bush in Ashantee in 18^4.
159. — The funeral of Captain Huish, Rifle Brigade, at Prahsu,
2gth January, 18^4.
Copies of pictures by Norie, in the possession of H.R.H. the
Duke of Connaught.
160. — Portrait of a Clergyman, in gown and bands.
Believed to be Bishop Nathaniel Spinckes. It much resembles
the engraved portrait prefixed to his "Sick Men Visited." He was
father of Anne, wife of Anthony Cope. See 54, He died 1727,
161, — Mr. Henry Cope.
A pastel of the same person as 127,
162. — An early copy of the Nozze Aldobrandini.
At the first discovery of this beautiful specimen of antique art,
in 1606, several copies were made of it by eminent artists of the
day ; of which this is probably one, acquired by the 5th Baronet
during his residence in Italy.

112
163. — Mr. Edmund Reily. A Pastel.
164. — Portrait of a Lady.
In a pale blue dress ; the costume of the early part of the XVII.
Century. 165. — Portrait of a Gentleman.
In armour with white falling collar. A beautifully painted portrait.
1 66. — Portrait of a Lady.
In yellow dress; the costume of the early part of the XVII.
Century, These three portraits match in shape, size, and frame.
167. — St. Paul before Felix. By Sir James Thornhili.
Felix and Drusilla are seated on a throne, under a canopy. On
the steps of the throne an attendant in a loose white garment. In
front, the Apostle pleads with his right hand raised ; behind him
several figures,
168 and 170. — Two French painted Fans in frames.
169. — Fan with engraving of the trial of Warren Hastings, in a
frame.
171, 172. — Two admirable sketches in Bramshill Park, with distant
views of the house. Done in sepia with a pen by Robert Petley,
Rifle Brigade, in 1837.

113

Appendix I.
(p. 6.)
Chapel of Bramshill,
On the 29th March, 1306, Henry Wodelock, Bishop of
Winchester, being then at Marwell, granted to John de Foxle and
Constance his wife permission to have the Divine Offices celebrated
in the Chapel of Bramshill, situated in the Parish of Eversley,
without prejudice to the Mother Church, such permission to be for
their lives.*''
And on the same day he addressed a writing to them, stating
that for the advancement of Divine Worship he willingly did them
a special favour that as often as, and whensoever they, or either of
them, should happen to be at their manor of Bramshill, and to
continue there, he granted full faculty that they might have Divine
Offices celebrated by any sufficient Chaplain in the Chapel of Bramshill,
in the parish of Eversley, in his diocese, and that they or either of
them might hear them, and that the faculty extended to the Chaplain
willing to serve there.*^'
And on the same day he grants permission to Elias, the Priest
of Sir John de Drokenesford [Droxford] that he may celebrate
the Divine Offices, and administer the Sacraments of the Church in
the Chapel of Bramshill, from the feast of Easter in the same
year until the Sunday when Quasimodo geniti is sung. [viz. the
first Sunday after Easter] *3-'
But this permission seems to have been abused. For the
Bishop addressed letters dated at Marwell on the 30th April of th-
same year to the [rural] Dean of Basingstoke, informing him that
'''Bishop Wodelock's Register, fol. 37''-
'"¦ Ibid. fol. 41".
'3' Ibidf. 37".

114
although he had at the request of John de Foxle granted that the
Divine Offices might be celebrated, in the past Eastertide untU the
Sunday when Quasimodo geniti is sung, in the Chapel of Bramshill
in the Parish of Eversley, by a Chaplain of his [the Bishop's] dear
friend Sir John de Drokensford, without prejudice to the Mother
Church ; yet it was shewn to him, on the part of the Rector of the
said Church who complained grievously of the Bishop's former grant of
permission, that John de Foxle, not content with the Bishop's former
permission limited to a certain time, had had the Divine Offices
celebrated in the said Chapel for fifteen days after the said Sunday,
and that the celebrant there received and detained the oblations
proceeding from the devotion of the faithful who resorted to, the
said Chapel, and took no care, nor does at the present time take
care, to pay them over to the Mother Church, to the no small
injury and manifest prejudice of the said Mother Church and of the
Church itself Wherefore the Bishop enjoins and commands the
rural Dean, in virtue of his holy obedience, and under penalty of
canonical deprivation, on receipt of these presents, to resort in
person to the said Chapel of Bramshill, and, by the Bishop's
authority, to suspend the service there, by whomsoever celebrated,
and, by ecclesiastical interdict, the Chapel itself, so far as relates to
the celebration of Divine Offices in it hereafter, until it be fully
decided whether Divine Office should be celebrated in it, and when,
how, in what manner, and by whom to be supplied. And therefore
he is with due diligence to enquire concerning the foregoing
oblations, received, taken and detained, by whom, and to what
value they amount. And whatsoever he shall ascertain in this matter
he is, as speedily as he conveniently can, when he shall be required
by the Rector of the said Church, to report fully, distinctly, and
openly by letter to the Bishop.*'-'
But the Foxleys seem not to have been disposed to submit to
the dictation of the Rector of Eversley, even when backed by the

(>.)

Bp. Wodelock's Register.

115
threats of the Bishop. Relying, apparently, on the Bishop's general
licence to have service in the Chapel, notwithstanding his limited
licence to Sir John Droxford's Chaplain Elias to celebrate it during
Easter week. Sir John Foxley persisted in having service daily. Elias
probably said no more offices there after Quasimodo Sunday ; but one
John takes his place as Chaplain, who is summoned to give an account
of himself by the following letter addressed (as before) to the rural Dean.
Brother*'-' Henry, by Divine permission Bishop of Winchester,
to his beloved son the Dean of Basingstoke, sends health, grace, and
blessing. And strictly enjoins and commands him by virtue of his
holy obedience to peremptorily cite John, the Chaplain of John de
Foxle and Constance his wife to appear before him [the Bishop] or
his official, or the commissary of the official, in the greater Church
of Winchester, on the first law-day after the feast of St. Dunstan,
Archbishop, to answer for that he contemptuously and profanely
presumed to celebrate the Divine Offices in the Chapel of Bramshill
in the parish of Eversley, laid under interdict by him [the Dean] by
the Bishop's ecclesiastical authority, and for other matters which may
be objected to him ex officio ; and having been personally sworn, as
to these things, to do and to receive what \i.e., such sentence as] shall
be of right, and consonant to reason. And moreover, the Dean is
with due diligence to enquire concerning the oblations, collected,
received and had, from Easter Eve to the present day in the said
Chapel, by whom retained, and of what value. And the result of
his enquiries in this matter he is to certify to the Bishop or his
official on the aforesaid day and place, constraining by ecclesiastical
censures those who contradict or oppose him in making this enquiry,
if any such there be. And he is to certify the Bishop or his official
of the citation of the said John the Chaplain, according to the form
above noted. This document is dated at Marwell the nth May,
1306, and the 5th year of his consecration.*^'
''¦'Wodelock was a Monk, and had been Prior of St. Swithin's, Winchester,
''¦'Register, f. 38.

ii6
Against this the Foxleys seem to have appealed to the
Metropolitan. For there is a letter from Bishop Wodelock
addressed to the Guardians of the Spiritualities of the Church of
Canterbury appointed by the Apostolic See, acknowledging the
receipt of a mandate from them dated 15th June, 1306; which
mandate he says he will as far as in him lies, reverently obey.
His letter is dated 27th July. The marginal rubric to this letter
or receipt (in the Register) is " Certificatorium de Foxele." *''
Archbishop Winchelsey was at this time in exile, and the Guardians
of the Spirituals were two foreigners "appointed by the Apostolic
See." My friend Archdeacon Harrison was so good as to search
the Registers at Canterbury ; but the text of the " mandate " is not
in existence there ; and there is reason to suppose that the acts
of these Guardians are, if anywhere, at Rome. But I cannot help
thinking that their mandate was in favour of the Foxleys ; for we
find the Bishop very soon afterwards, most probably in " reverent
obedience " to it, taking off the suspension.
For on the 17th March (in the second year of his consecration),
1307, the Bishop writes from Downton to the Dean of Basingstoke,
that whereas he had relaxed in due form of law the interdict laid
on the Chapel of Bramshill in the Parish of Eversley, and the
suspension laid on John, the Chaplain of Sir John de Foxle ; he
commits to the Dean, and commands him, to announce, or
cause to be announced, this relaxation of this interdict and
suspension by the Bishop on such days and at such places as
shall seem to him expedient. And he is to certify the Bishop by
letter what he does in the premises on being required on the
part of the said Sir John de Foxele.'^'
It was probably this dispute with the Rector that induced Sir
John Foxley a few years later, in 1312-13, to endow a Chapel with
''¦' Register, f. 42.
t'" Bish. Wodelock's Register, fol. 56,

117
a small endowment *'•' and to place the nomination of the Chaplain
in the hands of the Rector of Eversley as mentioned p, 5. But
this troublesome Rector Nicholas Hayman passed away, and his
successor seems to have been a man of a very different stamp.
For he gives the Foxleys a most full consent to the services being
said in the Chapel, and speaks of the Chaplain there to celebrate as
"their own," This consent was embodied in and enforced by a
document from the Vicar-General of the Bishop, who was then
absent from the diocese, to the following effect :
Gerald Asser, Prior of Petrucia, *=-' Vicar-General of the
Reverend Father in Christ, Rigaud, by the Grace of God,
Bishop of Winchester, now in foreign parts, *3-' to all sons of holy
mother Church to whom these present letters shall come greeting
in the Everlasting Lord : Know ye that we have seen and
inspected the under-written letters, not cancelled, nor annulled, nor
erazed, nor suspect, in tenor as follows :
To his very dear friends, and right well-beloved in Christ,
Sir John de Foxele, Knight, and Constance his wife, Nicholas
Walraunde, Rector of the Church of Eversley, diocese of Winton,
wisheth increase of health, and after this earthly flood of waters
be overpast, full enjoyment of the conversation of the blessed. The
earnestness of your devotion, most dearly beloved, which, in hearing
''¦' Fine roll. 6 Edward II. But this seems to apply to a different chapel at
Bramshill — not the domestic one — "annexed to the Church of Eversley." This was,
no doubt, situated about a mile from Bramshill-house, where a field is still called
"Chapel close." It had a Chapel-warden; for in a visitation book of the diocese of
Winchester of the year i5r7 this entry occurs: Capella de Bramsell, Willielmui
Foster, guardianus. It is thus evident that there were two Chapels : the domestic
Chapel, sanctioned by Bishop Wodelock in 1306, and by Bishop Asser's authority in
1322 ; and the Chapel endowed by Sir John Foxley in r3i2. This, probably, ceased
to exist, as so many such chapels did, at the Reformation.
'*' Petrucia ; ancienne ville du Rouergue ; Peyrousse aujourdhui, Commune de
Villefranche. " Manuel du Libraire."
'^¦' R. Asser, Bp. of Winchester, died at Avignon, 12 th April, 132 j.

tig
Divine Service day and night alike, and frequent and unfailing
experience of facts has proved you greatly anxious, demands that
the more we have had our way in these matters, the more
fruitfully should your merits abound unto you — -and so, weighing
all things as they should be weighed, one with another, according
to the measure of my own littleness, I desire to stir your devotion
all I can, and also to continue it happily on in the Lord ; specially
seeing that in winter-time great water floods and other things
incidental to matters human (occurring to prevent your being able
in your own persons and with your household, to get, as would be
proper, to your Mother Church), do beget hindrances, many times
and oft, as unaffected as they are likewise altogether un-looked
for. Wherefore unto you, John and Constance aforesaid, and unto
the heirs of thee, John, so far as in me Heth, I do assent and
concede, in the name of my church above named, that, in your
Manor-house of Bramshill *'' in my parish, in the Chapel which you
have there caused to be constructed and erected, you and your
households and your heirs, and the household and heirs of thee
John, have full power and privilege, in perpetuity, of hearing Divine
Service by your own proper Chaplain, day and night ; provided that
the grace and permission for this of the Lord Bishop of Winchester,
the Diocesan of the place, be first had and obtained, and the rights
of the above named Mother Church in all things and always reserved.
In witness whereof I have to these presents set my seal, and
because there are not many persons who know my seal, 1 have
procured the seal of the commissary of the Lord Official-General of
Winchester to be also affixed hereto. And we, Hugh Prany, the
general Commissary of the said Lord Official, have, at the instance of
the aforesaid Rector, caused the seal which we use in office to be
''¦'The name is spelt Bromeshulle throughout these documents. From Constance,
Lady Foxley, being so constantly named, as well as her husband, and from the Inquisition
mentioned p. s, n. 2, it would seem not improbable that it carae to Sir John Foxley by her.

ng
set to these presents. Dated at Winchester, xj. Kalends October
[21st September], 1322.
We therefore, the Vicar aforesaid, being willing to do a special
favour to the said John and Constance and to the heirs of the said
John, having the said grant of the Rector of Eversley ratified, do,
by the authority of the said Lord Bishop of Winchester, which we
possess for that purpose, confirm and fully approve the same. In
witness whereof we have caused our seal to be set to these presents.
Dated in the Castle of Wolveseye, near Winchester, xj. Kalends
October [23rd September] in the above named year of our Lord.
Not intending, however, by such approbation and confirmation in
anything to derogate from the right or dignity of the Church of
Winchester. Dated as above.*'-'

After this full grant by the Rector, confirmed by Episcopal
authority, all seems to have gone on peaceably between the owners
of Bramshill and their Chaplains and the Rectors of Eversley.
The next mention of the Chapel in the Episcopal registers is
the grant of a marriage licence ; which is curious, because it professes
to be a special licence permitting marriage out of a parish church :
the granting of which is generally deemed to have been a privilege
of the Archbishops of Canterbury in virtue of the Legatine Authority
to dispense, as Legati a late7^e of the Holy See ; a privilege rather
anomalously exercised by their present successors. The grant is as
follows :
John, by Divine permission Bishop of Winchester to our
beloved son, Sir Thomas, Chaplain of the Chapel of Bramshill in
our diocese, greeting, grace and benediction. By the tencr of
these presents we grant you special license to solemnize, out of a
parish church, in the said Chapel of Bramshill, a marriage between
William Saundford, our parishioner, and Constance, daughter of
<'•' Bishop Asser's Register, f. 27.

120
John de Bray, a parishioner of Bray in the Diocese of Salisbury by
the consent of the vicar thereof, the banns being previously
published as is wont, and no canonical objection existing. Dated
at Waltham on the 7th September, 1333, and the eleventh year of
our consecration.*'-' The only other notice of this Chapel is the sequestration by
Bishop Waynflete, mentioned p. 8.

Appendix II.
(P- 38.)
Arms on the Hall Screen.
Beginning near the great door :
The eight shields in the upper row of the frieze, and the first
shield of the lower row, shew the descent of Elisabeth, daughter and
heiress of Walter Mohun of Wollaston, who married Edward Cope
of Hanwell. The remaining seven shields of the lower row (over the left-hand
arch) shew the descent of Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir
George Chaworth, of Wiverton, who married Sir William Cope, the
second Baronet.
The shields on the two central pHasters shew the marriages of
the Baronets. In the pier between these central pilasters, the four upper shields
(in the frieze) shew the ancient arms of the Cope family ; the arms
by William Cope as Cofferer to King Henry VIL; and his two
marriages. The shields in the pier below shew the marriages of the
younger sons and of the daughters of the Baronets.
" ' Register of Bishop John de Stratford fol. 83''.

121
The seven shields in the upper row of the frieze over the right-
hand arch shew the descent of Penelope, daughter and co-heiress of
the Honourable General Mordaunt, and heiress of William Tipping
of Ewelme, who married Sir Monoux Cope, the seventh Baronet.*''
The seven shields in the lower row shew the descent of Anne,
daughter and heiress of Thomas Wyndham of Yateley, who married
Sir Richard Cope, the ninth Baronet.*^'
The shields on the pilaster next the great door shew the
descent from the second son of the first Baronet.

Appendix III.
(p. 40.)
To the R' Honble the Lord Zouch Lord Warden of the Cinq
Ports & one of his Ma''" Privie Councell.
The humble peticion of Thomas Selby.
Humblie shewinge to your Lordshipp that your peticioner haith
wrought dyv"' peeces of work for your Lordshipp & the last peece
of worke held your peticioner on worke 16 weekes, duringe which
tyme your Peticioner horded himself The stuffe belonging to the
worke cost 20 markes for which your honour yet oweth your
peticioner and for which your peticioner is yet indebted to dyvers
men who seeke daylie to arrest your said peticioner for the same,
soe that for feare he cannot perform any busynes whereby to get
his livinge beeing restrayned of libertie to his utter undoinge. The
stuffe with your peticioner's labor came to xxij'' as by a particular
noate on the other side, which your peticioner (for your better
satisfaccion) haith sent your Lordshipp, which specifieth all the
moneyes that your peticioner haith receaved, the last receapt was

"¦'See p. 80, No. 29.
''¦'See p. 77, No. 16,

122

ten pounds, six pounds whereof was for dyvers other workes done
about the house, as by a bill appeareth, and the four pounds was
taken in part of your peticioners bill of xxij pounds.
Male it thirfore please your good Lordshipp in comiserating
your poore servaunt for that xviij'' that remaynes of your peticioners
bill due to your saide peticioner three yeares and half That it
would please your good Lordshipp to give order for your peticioners
satisfaction & your peticioner shall be ever bound to pray for your
honors prosperous health & happines longe to continew.
From the ould Jury in London
the xxiiij Januarii 1619.
My Lord, the money which I do demaund of your honor is for
paintinge of the waynscott in the Tower roome after the Chene
hanging which is xvi pounds, & for payntinge the seelinge in the
sayd roome vi'', which maketh xxij pounds. I humblie beseech your
good Lordshipp not to be offended with mee in taking of this course,
for this three yeares I have weighted with peticions after your
Lordshipp for my money, ind none of your gentlemen would take
my peticion to your Lordshipp nor suffer my admittance unto you
and for want of my mony I am utterly undone. Therfore I humblie
beseech your honor that I may have my money or that your Lordshipp
will send unto my M"'- M"'- Thomas Capp in the old Jury and lett him
understand your Lordshipp's pleasure ; if your Lordshipp should not
paie me, my necessatie is such that I must peticion to the Kinge,
and send your Lordshipp a Privie Scale ; beseeching your Lordshipp
to tender my needes, and be noe way offended with me for seekinge
of my owne.
Worke done for the right hon'''' y*" Lord Zouch at Bramsell the
first beginninge of Mail 161 5 :
Item, for paintinge in the Hand ... ... 24 00 00
For culloringe of 124 wyndowes faire white in
oyle at 12"^- per p^- ... .,, ... ... 640

123

£

Item, for 94 casements faire red in oyle at vHj.
per peece ... .,. ... ,., ,.. 328
Item, 2 great dores faire timber cullor in oyle
at 5/- per peece ... ... ... ... — 10 —
Item, 2 litle dores faire timber cullor in oyle
at 2/6 per peece ... ... ... ... — 05 —
Item, for gildinge of the SiH of the Silver
Cubhord & working of it ... ... ... — 12 —
Item, for 10 dozen & 5 barres faire red in oyle
at i"*- per peece ... ... ... ... — 10 05
Item, for payntinge 2 chambers with wallnut
cullor graing of them and varnishing ... 7 07 07
Item, for working of the waynscott in the
Tower roome after the Chene hanging ... 16 o o
Item, for paynting the seelinge in the afforsaid
roome... ... ... ... ... ... 600
Item, for a cubhord cullord wallnutt ree'- and
graing & varnishing
Item, for a table suteable
Item, for 3 treastells suteable at 2'- per peece
Item, for 5 dozen and 2 barres faire red in
oyle at i"^- p'- peece
Item, for 19 casements at viij per peece
Item, for culloring of 80 wyndowes faire white
in oyle at i2'^- per peece ... ... ... 04 
Item, for one great dore faire timber cullor in
oyle  — 05 —
Item, for one litle dore faire timber cuHor in
oyle ... ... ... ... ... ... — 02 06

 12

— 08

06

05

02

 12

08

Summa totalis is 71 03 00

£

12

06 08

IO

IO
IO

IO

17
16
04
124
Receaved uppon the accompt aftbresaid
161 5, receaved the 20 Oct. of Captaine Barker*'-'
16 1 6, more the 30 of March of your honor ...
do, more the 3''- of June of your honor
do. more the 25 October of Captaine Barker
161 7, more the 26 October of Thomas Bannister
due by 71 03 00
A question arises in reference to this bHl, What were " Chene
hangings " ? I have searched every glossary to which I have access
for the meaning of the word " Chene " ; but without success.
Neither Halliwell nor Wright have it, nor anything like it, in their
Dictionaries. It has been suggested that as the tapestry in the
Dining-room is English, and probably worked at Mortlake, the
painter may have called them " Shene hangings " : Shene, or
Richmond, being adjacent to Mortlake. But a fatal objection to
this theory is that the factory at Mortlake was not established for
some years after this work had been done at Bramshill.
Again : some have thought that as the tapestry in the Dining-
room represents forest scenery, the word " chene " may represent the
French " chene," an oak. Certainly there are oaks represented in
that tapestry, as there are a great many other forest trees ; but I do
not see why it should be caHed " oak hangings," or why, if it was,
an English house-painter should use a French word to designate it.
And it has been thought that the word " Chene " may represent
the word "Cheney" the vulgar pronunciation of "China"; and
that the hangings meant were Chinese paper or Chinese silk. But
besides the doubt whether Chinese hangings were known at all in
England in 161 5, I believe that China was generally known then
as " Cathay."
''•' He seems to have been a Steward or Agent of Lord Zouch. His name appears
several times in deeds relating to the purchase of Bramshill by Lord Zouch.
125
I think it clear too that whatever room was meant by the
" Tower room," it could not have been the Dining room. The
work was evidently elaborate and expensive : painting the wainscot
cost ;i^i6; painting the cefling £6: very considerable sums at the
then value of money. Altogether this " Chene hanging " must
remain a mystery.

Appendix IV.
(P- 52.)
The Oak Ci-iest.
I cannot help giving, as an instance how minutely a story, almost
entirely apocryphal, may be told, the following extract from a letter
addressed to me many years ago :
" Miss B. says no doubt can exist of Bramshill being the seat
of the oak chest tragedy ; that Miss Cope was extremely young
and just from school at the time she married. She proposed the
game of Hide and Seek, which was pooh-poohed for a long time.
At last she said ' Well then, I shall go and hide myself ; ' and
was never found again. The family left the place, dreadfully
unhappy. About two years after. Lady Cope wrote to the
housekeeper to say they were coming down — and in going about
the rooms with the housemaid to prepare, she missed some
counterpanes, or something else, and in searching for them she
went into some rooms that had not been occupied for years. ' Oh,
they may be in that chest, and yet I do not think it likely,' she
said, and opened it, when there she beheld the wedding garments.
Upon the family being made acquainted with it, they came down,
and had forty rooms pulled down, as the house was excessively
large, and they could not bear to go into that part of the house

126
again. The Baronet at that time, I think she said, was Sir
Jonathan Cope. *''
Miss B. used in former days to be a great deal in Hampshire.
She lived with her aunt. Lady H., and she used to visit a great
deal at the H.'s, where she heard so much about Bramshill."
The minuteness of the detail in this story is curious ; and it is
remarkable that it connects the tragedy of the chest with the pulling
down of the wings (see p. 23), which shews that the narrator of this
story to Miss B. knew a good deal of the history of the house. All
I can say is that the only Lady of the family married at Bramshill
(until very recently) was Anne, daughter of the 6th Baronet, who
married Mr. Bethel in January, 1727; she died certainly very soon
after her marriage, in February, 1728-9, but not on her bridal day.
The only other Lady of the family who died at all soon after
marriage was Elizabeth, daughter of the 3rd Baronet, who married
Mr. Estcourt in 1665, and died in 1677. But this was before the
family possessed Bramshill.
There was a daughter, Elizabeth, of Sir John, the 6th Baronet,
" extremely young, and [probably] just from school," but she died
unmarried aged 13, and was buried at Eversley in September 1730.
She may have died in this sad way ; but then it is strange that Sir
Richard, her first cousin, and nine or ten years old at her death,
should not have known it. He was, however, a man of a very
peculiar disposition, and may have disliked being questioned as to
the chest, and the accident.

"¦'A mistake, doubtless for Sir John. Sir Jonathan Cope had nothing whatever to
do with Bramshill. He was of another branch of the family.

127

Appendix V.
(P- 95-)
Inscriptions at Hanwell.
On brass plates affixed to stone slabs in the Chancel of Hanwell
Church are the following inscriptions :
Memoriae Sacrum.
Hie jacet magnae indoli^
Maj oris spei adolescent
ulus, Henricus Cope, nobi
lissimorum parentum D.
Antonii Cope Baronetti
et Mariae uxoris ejus fill
us unicus et unice dilec
tus, qui sabbattico anno
hie transacto requievit
in Domino eterno subba
to fruiturus.
Transtulit cum Dominus
cum annum ugeret oct
avum, ipso die dominico ju
nii. 8, A.D. 1662.
Dominus dedit, Dominus ab
stulit, Dominus reddet.

Memoriae Sacrum.
Hie jacet ad pedes dilecti fratris
immatura familiae morte matura
sibi, D^ Maria Cope, eorumden pa
rentum filia unigenita et spes unica.

128
Quae vIrgo discessit in chorum
virginum ipsis vigiliis annunc. B.
virginis Mariae eujus nomen gessit,
eundem sortita cum anno vitae
terminum, et eundem hebdomadae
diem quo frater olim decessit.
Sic voluisti, Domine, quem fa
superstes humiliter orat
ut earn sic desolatam in gratia
tua respicias et in gloria
resuscites. Amen.
These beautiful inscriptions were written by Ashwell. For to
the insertion in his hand in the Register of Hanwell of the burial of
the son, he has appended the same words " Dominus dedit, etc."
which form the conclusion of this epitaph.

Appendix VI.
(p. 96.)
Hanwell,
Hanwell, which lies about two miles to the north of Banbury,
was purchased, 21st September 1500 (16 Hen. VII), by WHliam Cope,
the Cofferer, of the feofees to whom King Henry VII. had granted
the estates forfeited by John De La Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on his
attainder ; and in the next year he obtained from the King a release
and quit-claim of all demands or claim the Crown might have on
that manor.*'-' He built a castellated mansion here, which however
was not quite finished at his death in 1513 ; for by deed of

(>.)

Patent, 17 Hen. VII,

129
composition, 20th November, 1529, Anthony Cope, his second son,
covenants to build and edify it in place of Stephen, the eldest son,
who was bound to complete it as his father's executor. To this
second son he gave by will this estate, with others, in Oxfordshire ;
and it continued for two centuries to be the residence of his
descendants. Hanwell Castle was a quadrangular building with a frontage of
109 feet. At each angle was a square tower rising considerably
higher than the sides of the building, and flanked with octagonal
turrets. The whole edifice had an embattled parapet, and was built
of red brick with stone dressings and mullions. In the west front
was the entrance by a pointed door-way which led into the
quadrangle, and which was surmounted by an oriel window.
The principal parts of the house were pulled down about the
year 1777. The only portions now remaining are the south-western
tower and part of the south front, and the buHding thus left is
occupied as a farm-house. The room in the ground floor is 20 feet
by 18, and above it are two other rooms of similar dimensions, to
virhich access is obtained by a winding stair in the octagonal turret,
which ascends to the leads of the tower. In the lower room is a
very fine chimney-piece which was removed from one of the state
rooms pulled down. The great kitchen, in the south front, is now
used as a dairy, and in it and the adjoining room are two curious
fire-places placed back to back. In that part of this side which
looked into the quadrangle is an exceedingly handsome bay window
yet remaining. In the original state of the building there was a gallery or
passage leading from the house to the church, which is situated on
an adjacent knoll. The arches of communication, now stopped up,
can be plainly traced, one a little to the south of the south-western
tower, the other on the north side of the chancel, which, owing to
the elevation of the ground, is on a level with the first floor of the
house. This gallery was probably removed some time before the

I30
rest of the house was pulled down ; it does not appear in the
drawing in the Galfery at Bramshill, taken in 1776, just before the
building was taken down. The ground between the Church and the
house is, however, locally known as " Gallery Hill."
Hanwell was bequeathed (as I have said, p. 96, n. i) by the 4th
Bart, (after the decease of his brother) to a cousin, Jonathan Cope,
of Ranton Abbey, in Staffordshire. But neither Sir John, the 5th
Bart., who had a life interest in it, nor Jonathan Cope, the devisee
in remainder, who died before him in 1694, ever occupied it. The
note from the HanweH Register shews that the widow of the 4th
Baronet closed her life there in 171 1. Jonathan Cope's son was
created a Baronet in 1714, by the title of Sir Jonathan Cope of
Brewerne, which title became extinct at the death of his grandson
in 182 1. But HanweH, at the death of the 3rd Brewerne Baronet
in 1 78 1, had passed to his sister and elder co-heiress, afterwards
Duchess of Dorset, and on her decease to her daughter, the late
Countess DeLaWarr. It is now the property of her son, the
present Earl.
The Brewerne famHy resided at that place *'' until its destruction
by fire in 1 764, and subsequently at Orton-Longueville in Huntingdon
shire, a property which had come to that family by the marriage of
the eldest son of the first Brewerne Baronet to Lady ArabeHa
Howard, daughter of the 4th Earl of Carlisle.
Hanwell was twice honoured with the presence of Royalty.
King James I. and his Queen visited Sir Anthony Cope there on
the 20th August 1605, and were entertained for a day and a night;
as they were also, on the occasion of a second visit, on the 27th
August, 161 2. *=-'
''' Brewerne (or Bruern), near the western edge ol Oxfordshire, about four miles
from Burford, was founded in 11 47 by Nicholas Basset for Cistercian Monks. It was
valued (according to Dugdale) at the dissolution at ;^i34 los. lod. It was granted
by King James I. to Sir Anthony Cope, the ist Baronet, in 16 10 (see p. 60, note).
''¦'Nichols' "Progresses of James I.," vol. i. p. 527 and ii. p. 460.

131

Appendix VII.
The following is a list of the published Prints and Views of
Bramshill, so far as I have been able to ascertain them,
Neale. — Views of the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, 1814-1822.
Principal front.
Prosser. — Views of Seats in Hampshire, 1833.
Principal front.
Nash. — Mansions of England in the Olden Time, 1839
Principal front.
Terrace. Terrace-steps. Postern.
Shaw. — Details of Elizabethan Architecture, 1839.
I. Principal front.
2, Oriel window in the principal front.
3. Garden front.
4, Terrace front,
5. Pierced Parapet.
6. Terrace Arches.
7, Hall Screen.
8. Side of the great Drawing-room.
9, Details of the great Drawing-room and Library,
10, Ceilings of the Chapel and great Drawing-room.
1 1 . Chimney-piece in the great Drawing-room,
12. Ballustrade of the Terrace,
Robertson. — Environs of Reading, 1843,
Principal front — p, 152,
Illustrated London News, vol. vi. (1845) p. ']'].
Principal front.

Jesse. — Favourite Haunts, 1847.
Principal' front.
Garden front.
Sir Bernard Burke. — Visitation of the Seats and Arms, 185^
Principal and Terrace fronts from the Park.
Baronial Halls of England, 1858.
Principal front.
Vignette of Postern.

.SOUTH or ENGLAND PRINTING WORKS, i6o, FLEET STREET. E.C.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08854 0605

-Vft".

f{- '-'k'-'; :.'¦ "'I'r^'v'^l

ifiiagafRi
¦i*KRC75tSr'i'.'jM
it^s^g
Mi^.m
^•: 'S^aS?^
BPS*w^^^^^vvv^^%1^^^^^^^^^^S
».*5i S'i.-ii-V-*'*-'
=^¦•55-:-
Mil**. *¦ I y ¦¦¦—h^h IIIIII* 'fV 'iniy fi'T^ ^ii^flfV^ ' ¦! - -^-^i»^i^- -^^^?-2^SlB