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THE

STATELY HOMES OF ENGLAND

THE STATELY
HOMES OF ENGLAND

BY

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F.S.A., Etc., Etc.

AND

S. C. HALL, F.S.A.

COMPLETE IN TWO SERIES.

ILLUSTRATED WITH

THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD

NEW YORK
A. W. LOVERING, IMPORTER.

INTRODUCTION.

ENGLAND is rich—immeasurably richer than any other country under the sun—in its “Homes;” and these homes, whether of the sovereign or of the high nobility, of the country squire or the merchant-prince, of the artisan or the labourer, whether, in fact, they are palace or cottage, or of any intermediate grade, have a character possessed by none other. England, whose

“Home! sweet home!”

has become almost a national anthem—so closely is its sentiment entwined around the hearts of the people of every class—is, indeed, emphatically a Kingdom of Homes; and these, and their associations and surroundings, and the love which is felt for them, are its main source of true greatness. An Englishman feels, wherever he may be, that

“Home is home, however lowly;”

and that, despite the attractions of other countries and the glare and brilliancy of foreign courts and foreign phases of society, after all

“There’s no place like home”

in his own old fatherland.

Beautifully has the gifted poet, Mrs. Hemans, sung of English “Homes,” and charmingly has she said—

“The Stately Homes of England,

How beautiful they stand

Amidst their tall ancestral trees

O’er all the pleasant land!”

and thus given to us a title for our present work. Of these “Stately Homes” of our “pleasant land” we have chosen some few for illustration, not for their stateliness alone, but because the true nobility of their owners allows their beauties, their splendour, their picturesque surroundings, and their treasures of art to be seen and enjoyed by all.

Whether “stately” in their proportions or in their style of architecture, in their internal decorations or their outward surroundings, in the halo of historical associations which encircle them, or in the families which have made their greatness, and whose high and noble characters have given them an enduring interest, these “Homes” are indeed a fitting and pleasant subject for pen and pencil. The task of their illustration has been a peculiarly grateful one to us, and we have accomplished it with loving hands, and with a sincere desire to make our work acceptable to a large number of readers.

In the first instance, our notices of these “Stately Homes” appeared in the pages of the Art-Journal, for which, indeed, they were specially prepared, with the ultimate intention, now carried out, of issuing them in a collected form. They have, however, now been rearranged, and have received considerable, and in many instances very important, additions. The present volume may be looked upon as the first of a short series of volumes devoted to this pleasant and fascinating subject; others of a similar character, embracing many equally beautiful, equally interesting, and equally “stately” Homes will follow.

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT.

Winster Hall, Derbyshire.

CONTENTS OF FIRST SERIES.

PAGE

I.

—

Alton Towers, Staffordshire 1

II.

—

Cobham Hall, Kent 37

III.

—

Mount Edgcumbe, Devonshire 54

IV.

—

Cothele, Cornwall 70

V.

—

Alnwick Castle, Northumberland 78

VI.

—

Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire 116

VII.

—

Arundel Castle, Sussex 153

VIII.

—

Penshurst, Kent 172

IX.

—

Warwick Castle, Warwickshire 192

X.

—

Haddon Hall, Derbyshire 221

XI.

—

Hatfield House, Hertfordshire 294

XII.

—

Cassiobury, Hertfordshire 308

XIII.

—

Chatsworth, Derbyshire 322

[viii] [ix]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIRST SERIES.

Page

I.—ALTON TOWERS.

Lion Fountain

1

Ruins of Alton Castle

2

Alton Towers, from the Terrace

4 ———

”

–——

from the Lake

6

The Octagon

8

The Conservatories and Alcove

11

The Temple

19

The Conservatories

22

The Pagoda

24

Choragic Temple

27

View from the Lower Terrace

29

The Gothic Temple

31

Part of the Grounds

33

Hospital of St. John

34

II.—COBHAM HALL.

Initial Letter

37

Cobham Hall

38

The Three Sisters

43

The Lodge

45

Interior of the Church

48

The College Porch

50

The College

52

III.—MOUNT EDGCUMBE.

The Eddystone Lighthouse

54

Plymouth Breakwater

57

Mount Edgcumbe, from Stonehouse Pier

59

The Mansion

61

Lady Emma’s Cottage

64

The Gardens

65

The Ruin, the Sound, Drake’s Island, &c.

68

The Salute Battery

69

IV.—COTHELE.

The Mansion

73

The Landing Place

75

V.—ALNWICK CASTLE.

Lighting the Beacon

78

Plan of Alnwick Castle

80

Alnwick Castle, from the River Aln

81

The Barbican

83

The Prudhoe Tower and Chapel

85

The Keep

87

Norman Gateway in the Keep

89

The Armourer’s Tower

91

Figure of Warrior on the Barbican

93

The Well in the Keep

94

The Constable’s Tower

95

Figure of Warrior on the Barbican

96

The East Garret

98

The Garden Gate, or Warder’s Tower

99

Bond Gate: “Hotspur’s Gate”

103

Alnwick Abbey

105

The Percy Cross

107

Hulne Abbey: The Percy Tower

109 ———

”

–——

The Church

111

The Brislee Tower

114

VI.—HARDWICK HALL.

Ancient Pargetting, and Arms of Cavendish

116

Hardwick Hall, with the Entrance Gateway

118

The West Front

122

The Great Hall

125

The Grand Staircase

127

The Chapel

129

The Presence Chamber

131

Mary Queen of Scots’ Room

133

The Picture Gallery

135

Ancient Lock, and Arms of Hardwick

137

Hardwick Hall, from the Park

139

The Old Hall at Hardwick

142

Interior of the Old Hall

144

Fac-simile of the Countess of Shrewsbury’s Signature

145

Hault Hucknall Church

146

The Grave of Hobbes of Malmesbury in Hault Hucknall Church

148

VII.—ARUNDEL CASTLE.

Horned Owls in the Keep

153

The Quadrangle

156

Entrance Gate, from the Interior

158

The Keep

160

The Library

163

The Church of the Holy Trinity

169

Tombs of Thomas Fitzalan and Lady Beatrix in Arundel Church

171

VIII.—PENSHURST.

The Bell

172

Penshurst, from the President’s Court

174

North and West Fronts

177

View from the Garden

179

The Baron’s Court

182

The Village and Entrance to Churchyard

185

The Record Tower and the Church, from the Garden

186

The Hall and Minstrels’ Gallery

188

IX.—WARWICK CASTLE.

The Swan of Avon

192

The Castle, from the Temple Field

194

The Keep, from the Inner Court

196

Earl of Warwick and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester

198

Earl of Warwick’s Combat before the Emperor Sigismund and the Empress

199

Earl of Warwick Departing on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

200

Badge of the Earl of Warwick

201

Cæsar’s Tower

202

The Castle, from the Bridge

203

The Castle, from the Island

205

Guy’s Tower

206

The Warder’s Horn

207

The Castle, from the Outer Court

209

The Inner Court, from the Keep

211

Guy’s and the Clock Tower, from the Keep

212

The Castle, from the banks of the Avon

214

The Beauchamp Chapel; Monument of the Founder

216

The Confessional

217

The Oratory

218

Warwick: The East Gate

219

X.—HADDON HALL.

Dorothy Vernon’s Door

221

Haddon, from the Meadows on the Bakewell Road

223

The “Peacock” at Rowsley

225

Haddon, from the Rowsley Road

226

Arms of Vernon quartering Avenell

227

Arms of Lord Vernon

230

Haddon, from the Meadows

234

The Main Entrance

235

Inside of Gateway

236

Ground and Garden Plan of Haddon

237

The first Court-yard

239

Gateway under the Eagle Tower

240

The Chaplain’s Room

241

The Chapel

242

Norman Font in the Chapel

244

Wall-paintings in the Chapel

248

Steps to State Apartments

249

Roman Altar, Haddon Hall

250

The Banqueting-Hall: with the Minstrels’ Gallery

251

Old Oak-table in the Banqueting-Hall

252

The Hand-lock in the Banqueting-Hall

252

Staircase to Minstrels’ Gallery

253

Oriel Window in the Dining-room

255

Ante-room to the Earl’s Bed-room

256

The Ball-room, or Long Gallery

257

Steps to the Ball-room

259

Dorothy Vernon’s Door: Interior

260

Dorothy Vernon’s Door: Exterior

261

The State Bed-room

263

The Archers’ Room, for Stringing Bows, &c.

264

The Rack for Stringing the Bows

265

The Eagle, or Peverel Tower

266

Gallery across Small Yard

267

Room over the Entrance Gateway

268

The Terrace

270

The Hall from the Terrace

271

Arms of Family of Manners

272

Arms of the Duke of Rutland

278

The Foot-Bridge

279

Ring found at Haddon Hall

280

Washing-Tally found at Haddon Hall

281

Bakewell Church

283

Monument of Sir John Manners and his Wife, Dorothy Vernon

286

Ancient Cross, Bakewell Churchyard

290

XI.—HATFIELD HOUSE.

Armed Knight

294

The Old Palace at Hatfield

295

The Front View

297

The Garden front of Hatfield House

299

The East View

302

The Gallery

304

The Hall

305

XII.—CASSIOBURY.

Crest of the Earl of Essex

308

Back View

310

From the Wood Walks

313

From the South-west

315

The Swiss Cottage

317

The Lodge

318

Monument in the Church at Watford

320

XIII.—CHATSWORTH.

Entrance to the Stables

322

The Old Hall as it formerly stood

325

Chatsworth from the River Derwent

333

The Entrance Gates

335

The Grand Entrance-Lodge at Baslow

340

Edensor Mill Lodge and Beeley Bridge

341

Entrance Gate

342

The Bridge over the River Derwent, in the Park

343

The Great Hall and Staircase

344

Vista of the State Apartments

346

Grinling Gibbons’ Masterpiece

348

The Old State Bed-room

349

The State Drawing-room

351

The State Dining room

352

The Drawing-room

355

The Hebe of Canova

356

The Library

357

Fireplace by Westmacott in the Dining-room

359

The Sculpture Gallery

360

Mater Napoleonis

361

The Pavilion and Orangery, from the East

363

Carving over one of the Doors of the Chapel

365

Carving over one of the Doors of the Chapel

366

Carvings in the Chapel

367

The Private or West Library

370

The Sculpture Gallery and Orangery

372

Bust of the late Duke of Devonshire

373

The French Garden

374

The Great Cascade

375

The Alcove

376

Waterworks—The Willow Tree

377

Part of the Rock-work

378

The Great Conservatory

379

Part of the Rock-work—The Rocky Portal

380

The Emperor Fountain

381

The Garden on the West Front

382

West Front from the South

383

The Hunting Tower

384

Mary Queen of Scots’ Bower

385

The late Sir Joseph Paxton’s House

386

The Victoria Regia

388

Edensor Church and Village

389

Monumental Brass to John Beton

391

Cavendish Monument, Edensor Church

392

Tomb of the Sixth Duke of Devonshire

393

The Chatsworth Hotel, Edensor

395

ALTON TOWERS.

WE commence this series with Alton Towers, one of the most interesting of the many Stately Homes of England that dignify and glorify the Kingdom; deriving interest not alone from architectural grandeur and the picturesque and beautiful scenery by which it is environed, but as a perpetual reminder of a glorious past—its associations being closely allied with the leading heroes and worthies of our country.

The Laureate asks, apparently in a tone of reproach—

“Why don’t these acred sirs

Throw up their parks some dozen times a year,
And let the people breathe?”

The poet cannot be aware that a very large number of the “parks” of the nobility and gentry of England are “thrown up” not a “dozen times” but a hundred times in every year; and that, frequently, thousands of “the people” breathe therein—as free to all the enjoyments they supply as the owners themselves. Generally, also, on fixed days, the chief rooms, such as are highly decorated or contain pictures—the State Apartments—are open also; and all that wealth has procured, as far as the eye is concerned, is as much the property of the humblest artisan as it is of the lord of the soil.

And what a boon it is to the sons and daughters of toil—the hard-handed men—with their wives and children—workers at the forge, the wheel, and the loom,—who thus make holiday, obtain enjoyment, and gain health, under the shadows of “tall ancestral trees” planted centuries ago by men whose names are histories.

Ruins of Alton Castle.

Indeed a closed park, and a shut-up mansion, are, now, not the rule, but the exception; the noble or wealthy seem eager to share their acquisitions with the people; and continually, as at Alton Towers, picturesque and comfortable “summer houses” have been erected for the ease, shelter, and refreshment of all comers. Visitors of any rank or grade are permitted to wander where they will, and it is gratifying to add, that very rarely has any evil followed such license. At Alton Towers, a few shillings usually pays the cost consequent upon an inroad of four thousand modern “iconoclasts:” the grounds being frequently visited by so many in one day.

The good that hence arises is incalculable: it removes the barriers that separate the rich from the poor, the peer from the peasant, the magnate from the labourer; and contributes to propagate and confirm the true patriotism that arises from holy love of country.

Alton, Alveton, Elveton, or Aulton, was held by the Crown at the time of taking the Domesday survey, but, it would appear, afterwards reverted to its original holders; Rohesia, the only child of the last of whom, brought Alton, by marriage, to Bertram de Verdon, who had been previously married to Maude, daughter of Robert de Ferrars, first Earl of Derby. Alveton thus became the caput baroniæ of the Verdon family, its members being Wooton, Stanton, Farley, Ramsor, Coton, Bradley, Spon, Denston, Stramshall, and Whiston.

From the Verdons, through the Furnivals and Neviles, Alton passed to the Earls of Shrewsbury, as will be seen from the following notice of the Verdon family. Godfreye Compte le Verdon, surnamed de Caplif, had a son, Bertram de Verdon, who held Farnham Royal, Bucks, by grand sergeantry, circa 1080. He had three sons, one of whom, Norman de Verdon, Lord of Weobly, co. Hereford, married Lasceline, daughter of Geoffrey de Clinton, and by her had, with other issue, Bertram de Verdon, who was a Crusader, and founded Croxden, or Crokesden, Abbey, near Alton, in the twenty-third year of Henry II., anno 1176. He married twice: his first wife being Maude, daughter of Robert de Ferrars, first Earl of Derby (who died without issue in 1139), and his second being Rohesia, daughter and heiress of a former possessor of Alton, through which marriage he became possessed of that manor, castle, &c. He was Sheriff of the counties of Warwick and Leicester, and, dying at Joppa, was buried at Acre. By his wife Rohesia (who died in 1215) he had issue—William; Thomas, who married Eustachia, daughter of Gilbert Bassett; Bertram; Robert; Walter, who was Constable of Bruges Castle; and Nicholas, through whom the line is continued through John de Verdon, who, marrying Marjorie, one of the co-heiresses of Walter de Lacie, Lord Palatine of the county of Meath, had issue by her—Sir Nicholas de Verdon of Ewyas-Lacie Castle; John de Verdon, Lord of Weobly; Humphrey; Thomas; Agnes; and Theobald, who was Constable of Ireland, 3rd Edward I., and was in 1306 summoned as Baron Verdon. He died at Alton in 1309, and was buried at Croxden Abbey. His son, Theobald de Verdon, by his first wife, Elizabeth, widow of John de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, and daughter and one of the co-heiresses of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, by “Joane de Acres,” had a daughter, married to Lord Ferrars of Groby; and, by his second wife, Maude, daughter of Edmund, first Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, had issue, besides three sons who died during his lifetime, three daughters, who became his co-heiresses.

Alton Towers, from the Terrace.

One of these, Margaret (who married three times), had Weobly Castle for her portion; another, Elizabeth, married to Lord de Burghersh, had Ewyas-Lacie Castle for her portion; and the other, Joan, had for her portion Alton, with its castle and dependencies. This lady (Joan de Verdon) married, firstly, William de Montague; and, secondly, Thomas, second Lord Furnival, who, for marrying her without the king’s licence, was fined in the sum of £200. She had by this marriage two sons, Thomas and William, who were successively third and fourth Barons Furnival, lords of Hallamshire. This William, Lord Furnival, married Thomasin, daughter and heiress of Nicholas, second Baron Dagworth of Dagworth, and had by her a sole daughter and heiress, Joan de Furnival, who, marrying Thomas Neville of Hallamshire, brother to the Earl of Westmoreland, conveyed to him the title and estates, he being summoned in 1383 as fifth Baron Furnival. By her he had issue, two daughters and co-heiresses, the eldest of whom, Maude, “Lady of Hallamshire,” married, in 1408, John Talbot, afterwards first Earl of Shrewsbury and sixth Baron Talbot of Goderich—“Le Capitaine Anglais.” This nobleman, whose military career was one of the most brilliant recorded in English history, was summoned as Baron Furnival of Sheffield in 1409; created Earl of Shrewsbury, 1442; and Earl of Waterford, &c., 1446. He was slain, aged eighty, at Chatillon, in 1453, and was buried at Whitchurch. This Earl of Shrewsbury, who so conspicuously figures in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., enjoyed, among his other titles, that of “Lord Verdon of Alton”—a title which continued in the family, the Alton estates having now for nearly five centuries uninterruptedly belonged to them.

The titles of this great Earl of Shrewsbury are thus set forth by Shakespeare, when Sir William Lucy, seeking the Dauphin’s tent, to learn what prisoners have been taken, and to “survey the bodies of the dead,” demands—

“Where is the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury?
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange, of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece;
Great Mareshal to Henry the Sixth
Of all his wars within the realm of France.”

To which, it will be remembered, La Pucelle contemptuously replies—

“Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath—
Writes not so tedious a style as this—
Him that thou magnifiest with all these titles,
Stinking and fly-blown, lies here at our feet.”

From this John, Earl of Shrewsbury,—“the scourge of France,” “so much feared abroad that with his name the mothers still their babes,”—the manor and estates of Alton and elsewhere passed to his son, John, second earl, who married Elizabeth Butler, daughter of James, Earl of Ormond, and was succeeded by his son, John, third earl, who married Catherine Stafford, daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham; and was in like manner succeeded by his son, George, fourth earl, K.G., &c., who was only five years of age at his father’s death. He was succeeded, as fifth earl, by his son, Francis; who, dying in 1560, was succeeded by his son, George, as sixth earl.

Alton Towers, from the Lake.

This nobleman married, first, Gertrude Manners, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Rutland; and, second, Elizabeth (generally known as “Bess of Hardwick,” for an account of whom, see the article on Hardwick Hall in the present volume), daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, and successively widow, first, of Robert Barlow, of Barlow; second, of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth; and, third, of Sir William St. Loe. She was the builder of Chatsworth and of Hardwick Hall. To him was confided the care of Mary Queen of Scots. He was succeeded by his son Gilbert, as seventh earl. This young nobleman was married before he was fifteen to Mary, daughter of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth. He left no surviving male issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Edward, as eighth earl, who, having married Jane, daughter of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, died, without issue, being the last of this descent, in 1617. The title then passed to a distant branch of the family, in the person of George Talbot, of Grafton; who, being descended from Sir Gilbert Talbot, third son of the second earl, succeeded as ninth earl. From him the title descended in regular lineal succession to Charles, twelfth earl, who was created by George I. Duke of Shrewsbury and Marquis of Alton, and a K.G. At his death, the dukedom and marquisate expired, and from that time, until 1868, the earldom has never passed directly from a father to a son. The thirteenth earl was a Jesuit priest, and he was succeeded by his nephew as fourteenth earl. Charles, fifteenth earl, dying without issue, in 1827, was succeeded by his nephew, John (son of John Joseph Talbot, Esq.), who became sixteenth earl. That nobleman died in 1852, and was succeeded as seventeenth earl, by his cousin, Bertram Arthur Talbot (nephew of Charles, fifteenth earl), who was the only son of Lieut.-Colonel Charles Thomas Talbot. This young nobleman was but twenty years of age when he succeeded to the title and estates, which he enjoyed only four years, dying unmarried at Lisbon, on the 10th of August, 1856. Earl Bertram, who, like the last few earls his predecessors, was a Roman Catholic, bequeathed the magnificent estates of Alton Towers to the infant son of the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Edward Howard, also a Roman Catholic; but Earl Talbot (who was opposed in his claim by the Duke of Norfolk, acting for Lord Edward Howard; by the Princess Doria Pamphili, of Rome, the only surviving child of Earl John; and by Major Talbot, of Talbot, co. Wexford) claimed the peerage and estates as rightful heir. After a long-protracted trial, Earl Talbot’s claim was admitted by the House of Lords, in 1858; and after another trial his lordship took formal possession of Alton Towers and the other estates of the family, and thus became eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, in addition to his title of third Earl of Talbot.

His lordship (the Hon. Henry John Chetwynd Talbot, son of Earl Talbot) was born in 1803. He served in the Royal Navy, and became an admiral on the reserved list. He was also a Knight of the Order of St. Anne of Russia, and of St. Louis of France, a Knight of the Bath, and a Privy Councillor. In 1830, his lordship, then Mr. Talbot, represented Thetford in Parliament; and in the following year was elected for Armagh and for Dublin; and from 1837 until 1849, when he entered the Upper House as Earl Talbot, he represented South Staffordshire. In 1852 his lordship was made a Lord in Waiting to the Queen; in 1858 Captain of the Corps of Gentlemen at Arms; and was also Hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland.

The Octagon.

He married in 1828 Lady Sarah Elizabeth Beresford, eldest daughter of the second Marquis of Waterford, and by her had issue living four sons, viz.—Charles John, present, nineteenth, Earl of Shrewsbury; the Hon. Walter Cecil Talbot, who, in 1869, assumed, by Royal Sign Manual, the surname of Carpenter in lieu of that of Talbot, on his succeeding to the Yorkshire estates of the late Countess of Tyrconnell; the Hon. Reginald Arthur James Talbot, M.P. for Stafford; and the Hon. Alfred Talbot; and three daughters, viz.: Lady Constance Harriet Mahunesa, married to the Marquis of Lothian; Lady Gertrude Frances; and Lady Adelaide, married at her father’s death-bed, June 1st, 1868, to the Earl Brownlow. The eighteenth Earl died in June, 1868, and was succeeded by his son, Charles John, Viscount Ingestre, M.P., as nineteenth earl.

The present peer, the noble owner of princely Alton, of Ingestre, and of other mansions, Charles John Talbot, nineteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, fourth Earl of Talbot, of Hemsoll, in the county of Glamorgan, Earl of Waterford, Viscount Ingestre, of Ingestre, in the county of Stafford, and Baron Talbot, of Hemsoll, in the county of Glamorgan, Hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland, and Premier Earl in the English and Irish peerages, was born in 1830, and was educated at Eton and at Merton College, Oxford. In 1859 he became M.P. for North Staffordshire, and, in 1868, for the borough of Stamford. In 1868 he succeeded his father in the titles and estates, and entered the Upper House. He formerly held a commission in the 1st Life Guards. His lordship married, in 1855, Anne Theresa, daughter of Commander Richard Howe Cockerell, R.N., and has issue one son, Charles Henry John, Viscount Ingestre, born in 1860; and three daughters, the Hon. Theresa Susey Helen Talbot, born in 1856; the Hon. Gwendoline Theresa Talbot, born in 1858; and the Hon. Muriel Frances Louisa Talbot, born in 1859.

The Earl of Shrewsbury is patron of thirteen livings, eight of which are in Staffordshire, two in Worcestershire, and one each in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Shropshire.

The arms of the earl are, gules, a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed, or. Crest, on a chapeau, gules, turned up, ermine, a lion statant, with the tail extended, or. Supporters, two talbots, argent.

We have thus given a history of this illustrious family from its founder to the present day, and proceed to describe its principal seat in Staffordshire—the beautiful and “stately home” of Alton Towers.

The castle of the De Verdons, which was dismantled by the army of the Parliament, stood on the commanding and truly picturesque eminence now occupied by the unfinished Roman Catholic Hospital of St. John and other conventual buildings, &c. A remarkably interesting view, showing the commanding site of the castle, and the valley of Churnet, with Alton Church, &c., is fortunately preserved in an original painting from which our first engraving is made.

The site of Alton Towers was originally occupied by a plain house, the dwelling of a steward of the estate. A hundred and forty years ago it was known as “Alveton (or Alton) Lodge,” and was evidently a comfortable homestead, with farm buildings adjoining.

When Charles, fifteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, succeeded to the titles and estates of his family, in the beginning of the present century, he made a tour of his estates, and on visiting Alton was so much pleased with the natural beauties of the place, and its surrounding neighbourhood, that he determined upon improving the house and laying out the grounds, so as to make it his summer residence.[1] With that view he added considerably to the steward’s dwelling, and having, with the aid of architects and landscape gardeners, converted that which was almost wilderness into a place of beauty, he called it “Alton Abbey,”—a name to which it had no right or even pretension. To his taste, the conservatories, the temples, the pagoda, the stone circle, the cascades, the fountains, the terraces, and most of the attractive features of the grounds, owe their origin, as do many of the rooms of the present mansion. A pleasant memory of this excellent nobleman is preserved at the entrance to the gardens, where, in a noble cenotaph, is a marble bust, with the literally true inscription—

“He made the desert smile.”

After his death, in 1827, his successor, Earl John, continued the works at Alton, and, by the noble additions he made to the mansion, rendered it what it now is—one of the most picturesque of English seats. In 1832 his lordship consulted Pugin as to some of the alterations and additions, and this resulted in his designing some new rooms, and decorating and altering the interior of others. Mr. Fradgley and other architects had also previously been employed, and to their skill a great part of the beauty of Alton Towers is attributable. The parts executed by Pugin are the balustrade at the great entrance, the parapet round the south side, the Doria apartments over Lady Shrewsbury’s rooms, on the south-east side of the house, called sometimes the “plate-glass drawing-room,” the apartments over the west end of the great gallery, and the conservatory, &c. The fittings and decorations of many of the other rooms and galleries, including the unfinished dining-hall and the chapel, are also his. The entrance lodges near the Alton Station are likewise from Pugin’s designs.

The Conservatories and Alcove.

The principal, or state, entrance to the mansion is on the east side, but the private foot entrance from the park is by the drawbridge, while that from the gardens and grounds is by a path leading over the entrance gateway or tower. To reach the state entrance the visitor on leaving the park, passes a noble gateway in an embattled and machicolated tower, with side turrets and embrasures, near to which he will notice the sculptured arms of De Verdon, of Furnival, and of Raby, and on the inner side of the tower, those of Talbot, with the date, 1843. Passing between embattled walls, the entrance to the right is a majestic tower, bearing sculptured over the doorway the armorial bearings, crest, supporters, with mantling, &c., of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The steps leading to the doorway are flanked on either side by a life-size “talbot,” bearing the shield and the family arms, while on the pedestals, &c., are the monogram of Earl John, and the motto “Prest d’accomplir.” Passing through the doors the visitor enters the Entrance Tower, a square apartment of extremely lofty proportions. “The doors being closed after him, he will at once notice the most striking feature of this hall to be, that the entrance-doors and the pair of similar folding-doors facing them—each of which is some twenty feet high, and of polished oak—are painted on their full size with the arms, supporters, &c., of the Earl of Shrewsbury. This fine effect, until the place was dismantled a few years since, was considerably heightened by the assemblage of arms, and armour, and of stags’ antlers, &c., with which the walls were decorated. In this apartment the old blind Welsh harper, a retainer of the family, with his long dress, covered with medals and silver badges, sat for years and played his native strains on the ancient bardic instrument of his country.

“From this apartment one of the immense pairs of heraldic doors opens into ‘The Armoury,’ a fine Gothic apartment of about 120 feet in length, with oak roof, the arches of which spring from carved corbels, while from the central bosses hang a series of pendant lanterns. The ‘armoury’ is lit on its north side by a series of stained-glass windows, the first of which bears, under a canopy, &c., the portrait and armorial bearings of William the Conqueror; the next those of ‘Marescallus pater Gilberti Marescalli Regis Henrici Primi, temp. Will^m. Conq^r.;’ the third, those of Donald, King of Scotland, 1093; the fourth, those of Raby; the fifth, those of De Verdun, the founder of the castle of Alton (‘Verdun fund: Cast: de Alveton, originalis familiæ de Verdun, temp. Will. Conq^r.’); and the sixth, of Lacy—‘Summa soror et heres Hugonis de Lacy, fundatoris de Lanthony in Wallia; Mater Gilberti de Lacy, temp. Will. Conq^r.’ In this apartment, from which a doorway leads to the billiard and other rooms, hang a number of funeral and other banners of the house of Talbot, and at one end is the Earl’s banner as Lord High Seneschal or Lord High Steward of Ireland—a blue banner bearing the golden harp of ‘Old Ireland’ which was borne by the Earl of Shrewsbury at the funeral of King William IV. In the palmy days of Alton this apartment was filled with one of the most magnificent assemblages of arms and armour ever got together, amongst which not the least noticeable feature was a life-size equestrian figure of ‘the great Talbot’ in full armour, and bearing on his head an antique coronet, in his hand a fac-simile of the famous sword which he wielded so powerfully while living, bearing the words—

‘Ego sum Talboti pro vincere inimicos meos

and on his shoulders his magnificent ‘Garter’ mantle, embroidered with heraldic insignia. The horse was fully armed and caparisoned, the trappings bearing the arms and insignia of its noble owner. The figure was placed on a raised oak platform, richly carved; and on this, at the horse’s feet, lay the fine war helmet of the grand old Earl. At the farther or west end of the armoury, a pair of open screen-work doors of large size, formed of spears and halberds, and surmounted by a portcullis—the whole being designed by a former Countess of Shrewsbury—opens into—

“The Picture-Gallery.—This noble gallery, about 150 feet in length, has a fine oak and glass ceiling, supported by a series of arches, which spring from corbels formed of demi-talbots, holding in their paws shields with the Talbot arms, while in each spandrel of the roof are also the same arms. The room is lit with sumptuous chandeliers. In this gallery was formerly a series of tables, containing articles of vertu and a large assemblage of interesting objects, while the walls were literally covered with paintings of every school, including the collection formed by Letitia Buonaparte, which was purchased in Paris by Earl John. It is now entirely denuded of this treasure of art. From the Picture-Gallery a pair of Gothic screen-work oak and glass folding-doors, with side lights to correspond, opens into—

“The Octagon (sometimes called the ‘Saloon,’ or ‘Sculpture-Gallery’), an octagonal room designed to some extent from the splendid Chapter House at Wells Cathedral. Like this it has a central pier, or clustered column, of sixteen shafts, from the foliated capital of which the ribs of the vaulted roof radiate. Other radiating ribs spring from shafts at the angles of the room; and where the radiations meet and cross are sculptured bosses, while a series of geometric cuspings fills in between the intersecting ribs at the points of the arches. Around the base of the central column is an octagonal seat, and stone benches are placed in some parts of the sides. It is lit with pendant Gothic lanterns.

“The ‘Octagon’ opens on its east side into the ‘Picture-Gallery;’ on its west into the ‘Talbot Gallery;’ and on its north into the ‘Conservatory.’ On its south is a fine large window of Perpendicular tracery filled with stained glass, while on the other four sides are small windows, diapered in diagonal lines, with the motto, ‘Prest d’Accomplir,’ alternating with monograms and heraldic devices of the family. Over the Picture-Gallery doorway the following curious verses—a kind of paraphrase of the family motto, ‘Prest d’Accomplir,’ which is everywhere inscribed—are painted in old English characters on an illuminated scroll:—

“‘The redie minde regardeth never toyle,
But still is Prest t’accomplish heartes intent;
Abrode, at home, in every coste or soyle.
The dede is done, that inwardly is meante;
Which makes me saye to every vertuous dede,
I am still Prest t’accomplish what’s decreede.

“‘But byd to goe I redie am to roune,
But byd to roune I redie am to ride;
To goe, roune, ride, or what else to bee done.
Speke but the word, and sone it shall be tryde;
Tout prest je suis pour accomplix la chose,
Par tout labeur qui vous peut faire repose.

“‘Prest to accomplish what you shall commande,
Prest to accomplish what you shall desyre,
Prest to accomplish your desires demande,
Prest to accomplish heaven for happy hire;
Thus do I ende, and at your will I reste,
As you shall please, in every action Prest.’

“Above this, and other parts of the walls, are the emblazoned arms of Talbot, Furnivall, De Verdun, Lacy, Raby, and the other alliances of the family; while in the large stained-glass window on the south side are splendid full-length figures of six archbishops and bishops of the Talbot family, with their arms and those of the sees over which they presided. Beneath this window are two beautiful models, full size, of ancient tombs of the great Talbots of former days. One of these is the famous tomb, from Whitchurch, of John, first Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in battle July 7, 1453. It bears a full-length effigy of the Earl in his Garter robes and armour, and bears on its sides and ends a number of emblazoned shields of the Talbot alliances, and the following inscription:—

“‘Orate pro anima prœnobilis domini, domini Johanis Talbot, Comitis Salopiæ, domini Furnival, domini Verdun, domini Strange de Blackmere, et Mareschalli Franciæ; qui obiit, in bello apud Burdeux VII Julii MCCCCLIII.’

“It is related that when this noble warrior was slain, his herald passing over the battle-field to seek the body, at length found it bleeding and lifeless, when he kissed it, and broke out into these passionate and dutiful expressions:—‘Alas! it is you: I pray God pardon all your misdoings. I have been your officer of arms forty years or more. It is time I should surrender it to you.’ And while the tears trickled plentifully down his cheek, he disrobed himself of his coat of arms and flung it over his master’s body. This is the knight of whom we read—

“‘Which Sir John Talbote, first Lord Fournivall,

Was most worthie warrior we read of all.

For by his knigh thode and his chivalrye

A Knight of the Garter first he was made;

And of King Henry, first Erle Scrovesberye.

To which Sir John, his sone succession hade,

And his noble successors now therto sade;

God give them goode speede in their progresse,

And Heaven at their ende, both more or lesse.

The live to report of this foresaid lorde

How manly hee was, and full chivalrose:

What deedes that he did I cannot by worde

Make rehersal, by meter ne prose;

How manly, how true, and how famose,

In Ireland, France, Normandy, Lyon, and Gascone

His pere so long renyng I rede of none.

*******

Which while he reigned was most knight

That was in the realme here many yere,

Most dughty of hand and feresest in fight,

Most drede of all other with French men of werr

In Ireland, France, Gyon; whose soule God absolve

And bring to that Llyss that will not dissolve.’

“From the north side of the ‘Octagon’ a flight of stone steps leads up to a glass doorway, which opens into a glass vestibule, forming a part of the ‘Conservatory,’ of which I shall speak a little later on. This conservatory leads into the ‘Dining-room’ and the suite on the north side, and the view along it from the Octagon is charming in the extreme, not the least striking and sweetly appropriate matter being the motto painted above the flowers and around the cornice of the vestibule:—

“‘The speech of flowers exceeds all flowers of speech.’

“On the west side a similar flight of steps and doorway open into

“The Talbot Gallery, a magnificent apartment of about the same size and proportions as the ‘Picture-Gallery.’ It has a fine Gothic ceiling of oak and glass, supported, like that of the Picture-Gallery, on arches springing from demi-talbots bearing shields. The walls, to about two-thirds of their height, are covered with a rich arabesque paper of excellent design, while the upper part is painted throughout its entire surface in diagonal lines with the Talbot motto ‘Prest d’Accomplir,’ alternating with the initials T. (Talbot) and S. (Shrewsbury). On this diapered groundwork are painted, at regular intervals, shields of arms, fully blazoned, with tablets beneath them containing the names of their illustrious bearers. The series of arms on the south side shows the descent of the Earl of Shrewsbury from the time of the Conquest, while those on the north side exhibit the armorial bearings of the alliances formed by the females of the House of Talbot. As these series are of great importance, and have only heretofore been given in Mr. Jewitt’s work upon Alton Towers, from which the whole of the description of the interior here given is copied, I have carefully noted them for the reader’s information. On the south side, commencing at the end next the ‘Octagon,’ the arms are as follows, the arms being all impaled:—

“William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders.
King Henry I. and Matilda of Scotland.
Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of King Henry I.
King Henry II. and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
King John and Isabella d’Angoulême.
King Henry III. and Eleanor of Provence.
King Edward I. and Eleanor of Castile.
Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward I.
James Butler, Earl of Ormond, and Eleanor, daughter of the Earl of Hereford.
James, Earl of Ormond, and Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Kildare.
James, Earl of Ormond, and Anne, daughter of Baron Welles.
James, Earl of Ormond, and Joane, daughter of William de Beauchamp.
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Ormond.
Sir Gilbert Talbot, Knight of the Garter, and Audrey Cotton.
Sir John Talbot and Ada Troutbecke.
Sir John Talbot and Frances Clifford.
John Talbot and Catherine Petre.
John Talbot and Eleanor Baskerville.
John, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Mary Fortescue.
Gilbert Talbot and June Flatsbury.
George, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Mary Fitzwilliam.
Charles Talbot and Mary Mostyn.
John Joseph Talbot and Mary Clifton.
‘John, now Earl of Shrewsbury, Waterford, and Wexford,’ and Maria Talbot.
Richard, Baron Talbot, ancestor of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Elizabeth Cummin.
John, father of Elizabeth Cummin, and Joane de Valence.
William de Valletort, Earl of Pembroke, and Joane Mountchesney.
Hugh, Count de la Marche, and Isabel d’Angoulême.
Aymer, Count d’Angoulême, and Alice de Courteney.
Peter, fils de France, and the Heiress of Courteney.
Louis VI., King of Fiance, father of Peter de Courteney.
Richard Talbot and Eva, daughter of Gerrard de Gournay.
Hugh Talbot and Beatrix, daughter of William de Mandeville.
Richard Talbot and Maud, daughter of Stephen Bulmer.
Richard Talbot and Aliva, daughter of Alan Bassett.
William Talbot and Gwendiline, daughter of Rhys ap Griffith, Prince of Wales.
Richard Baron Talbot and Elizabeth Cummin.
John Cummin, grandfather of Elizabeth, and Margery Baliol.
John Baliol and Dorvegillia, Lady of Galloway.
David the First, King of Scotland, and the Lady of Galloway.

“On the north side, beginning at the west end, the arms of the female alliances are as on the other side—impaled—and are as follows:—

“Joane Talbot, married to John Carew.
Joane Talbot to John de Dartmouth.
Elizabeth Talbot to Waren Archdekene.
Katherine Talbot to Sir Roger Chandos.
Phillippa Talbot to Sir Matthew Gournay.
Jane Talbot to Sir Nicholas Poynings.
Anne Talbot to Hugh, Earl of Devon.
Mary Talbot to Sir Thomas Greene.
Elizabeth Talbot to Sir Thomas Barre.
Jane Talbot to Hugh de Cokesay.
Elizabeth Talbot to Thomas Gray, Viscount Lisle.
Margaret Talbot to Sir George Vere.
Anne Talbot to Sir Henry Vernon.
Margaret Talbot to Thomas Chaworth.
Eleanor Talbot to Thomas, Baron Sudeley.
Margaret Talbot to Henry, Earl of Cumberland.
Mary Talbot to Henry, Earl of Northumberland.
Elizabeth Talbot to Lord Dacre of Gilsland.
Anne Talbot to Peter Compton.
Anne Talbot to William, Earl of Pembroke.
Anne Talbot to John, Baron Bray.
Anne Talbot to Thomas, Lord Wharton.
Catherine Talbot to Edward, Earl of Pembroke.
Mary Talbot to Sir George Saville.
Grace Talbot to Henry Cavendish.
Mary Talbot to William, Earl of Pembroke.
Elizabeth Talbot to Henry, Earl of Kent.
Alatheia Talbot to Thomas, Earl of Arundel.
Gertrude Talbot to Robert, Earl of Kingston.
Mary Talbot to Thomas Holcroft.
Mary Talbot to Sir William Airmine.
Margaret Talbot to Robert Dewport.
Elizabeth Talbot to Sir John Littleton.
Mary Talbot to Thomas Astley.
Joane Talbot to Sir George Bowes.
Mary Talbot to Mervin, Earl of Castlehaven.
Barbara Talbot to James, Lord Aston.
Mary Talbot to Charles, Baron Dormer.
Mary Alathea Beatrix Talbot to Prince Filippo Doria Pamfili.
Gwendaline Catherine Talbot to Prince Marc Antonio Borghese.

“On and over the doorway are the arms and quarterings of the Talbots, and the sculptured stone chimney-pieces are of the most exquisite character, having Talbots supporting enamelled banners of arms under Gothic canopies, and shields on the cuspings. At the top also is a shield, supported by two angels. The fire-place is open, and has fire-dogs; and the tiles are decorated alternately with the letter S for Shrewsbury, and I T conjoined, for John Talbot.

“At the west end is a splendid stained-glass window, exhibiting the names, armorial bearings, and dates of Earl John and nine of his ancestors, who have been Knights of the Garter—the garter encircling each of the shields. The names are Gilbert, Lord Talbot, 19 Henry VI.; John, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1460; George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury; George Talbot; Francis, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury; Sir Gilbert Talbot, 1495; George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury; Gilbert, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, 1592; Charles, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1604; and John, Earl of Shrewsbury, 1840.

“In the palmy days of Alton Towers, this room, the Talbot Gallery, contained a splendid collection of choice paintings, a fine assemblage of rare china, some exquisite sculpture, and a large number of articles of vertu of every imaginable class and character. From the north side a small door opens into—

“The Oak Corridor, a narrow passage leading in a straight line to the North Library, and having doorways opening on its left into both of the state-rooms. The first of these rooms, after passing the ‘waiting-room’ or ‘ante-room,’ is—

“The State Boudoir, an octagonal apartment with a magnificent carved, painted, and gilt Gothic ceiling. This, in former days, when it contained some fine old cabinets, a service of regal Sèvres china, and some exquisite portraits, and was filled with sumptuous furniture, was one of the most charming rooms imaginable. Next to this is—

“The State Bed-room.—The ceiling is panelled, being divided by deep ribs into squares, having the ground painted a pale blue; rich tracery of oak and gold stretches toward the centre of each compartment, and terminates with a gold leaf; the hollow mouldings of the ribs are crimson, studded with gold; below is a deep cornice of vine-leaves and fruit picked out green and gold; and the walls are hung with paper of an azure ground, relieved with crimson and gold.

The Temple.

“The State Bed, which is about 18 feet in height and 9 feet in width, is a sumptuous piece of massive Gothic furniture, all gilt in every part and massively carved. Around the canopy hangs the most costly of bullion fringe, and the hangings, as well as those of the windows and other furniture, are of the richest possible golden Indian silk. This room formerly contained a toilet service of gold, and the whole of the furniture and decorations were of the grandest character. The chimney-piece is of white marble, exquisitely carved, and bearing on the spandrels the Talbot arms—a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed. The furniture is all gilt like the bed, with which also the drapery is en suite. The windows, as do also those of the boudoir, look out upon a perfect sea of magnificent rhododendrons. One door opens into the Oak Corridor, and another into—

“The Dining-Room, from which, by a doorway, the Oak Corridor is also entered, and from which, by a light staircase, access to the upper suite of sleeping apartments, including the ‘Arragon room’ (and to the lower rooms) is gained. From this ante-room—

“The West Library is entered. This apartment, a fine, sombre, quiet-looking room, has a panelled ceiling, at the intersections of the ribs of which are carved heraldic bosses. In the centre is a large and massive dark oak table, and around the sides of the room are ranged fine old carved and inlaid cabinets and presses for books. Over these presses, and in different parts of this room and of the ‘North Library,’ are a number of well-chosen mottoes, than which for a library nothing could well be more appropriate. Thus, in these mottoes, among others we read—

“‘Study wisdom and make thy heart joyful.’

“‘The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the portion of fools.’

“‘They that be wise shall shine as the firmament.’

“‘Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and is rich in prudence.’

“‘The heart of the wise shall instruct his mouth and add grace to his lips.’

“‘Take hold on instruction; leave it not; keep it because it is thy life.’

“‘Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesseth it.’

“From this fine apartment the North Library is entered by two open archways. This room is similar in its appointments to the West Library, and with it forms one magnificent whole. At the north-west corner of this room (in the tower) is a charming apartment, connected with the library by an open archway, called—

“The Poet’s Bay or ‘Poet’s Corner,’ which is one of the most charming of all imaginable retreats. The bay window overlooks the park and the distant country for miles away, while the side windows overlook parts of the grounds and buildings. The ceiling is of the most elaborate character, covered with minute tracery and exquisite pendents picked out in gold and colours. At the west end of the library is a stained-glass window with full-length figures of ‘Gilbert Talbot’ and the ‘Lady Joan,’ with their arms under Gothic canopies. From this room a door on the south side opens into the ‘Oak Corridor,’ while two open arches at the east end connect it with—

“The Music-Room, the ceiling of which is an elegant example of flamboyant tracery, the ground being blue, and the raised tracery white and gold. The chimney-piece of white marble is elaborately sculptured, and from it rises a majestic pier-glass. On either side are portraits of Earl John and his Countess, life-size, surmounted by their coronets. The furniture which remains is of remarkably fine character, carved and gilt, and the walls are here and there filled in with mirrors, which add much to the effect. On the south side is a large and deeply-recessed bay window, like the rest, of Gothic design, with stained glass in its upper portion, representing King David playing on the harp, St. Cecilia, and angels with various musical instruments. In front of this window is a beautiful parterre of flowers, the Conservatory being to the left, and the state-rooms to the right. From the ‘Music-Room,’ glass doors, in a Gothic screen, open into a small library, with Gothic presses and stained-glass window with Talbot arms, &c. From this room another similar door opens into—

“The Drawing-Room, a remarkably fine and strikingly grand Gothic apartment, with a ceiling of flamboyant tracery of very similar design to the one already named. To the right, on entering, a central door of Gothic screen-work and glass opens into the Conservatory, which, as I have before said, connects this room and those on the north side with the Octagon and those on the south side. The Conservatory is entirely of glass, both roof and sides, and has a central transept. It is filled with the choicest plants, and in every part, except the vestibule, the sweetly pretty and appropriate text, ‘Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like unto one of these,’ is painted around the cornice. In the vestibule, as I have said, the motto is, ‘The speech of flowers exceeds all flowers of speech.’ Over the Conservatory door, in stained glass, are the arms of Talbot, Verdun, &c.; the crowned rose and thistle; and other devices. Opposite to the Conservatory, on the north side, is the ‘Saloon.’ The furniture of the ‘Drawing-room,’ the chairs, couches, and seats, are all of the most costly character, some of them draped with the arms, supporters, &c., of the earl in gold and crimson damask. On a table in this room are arranged the various addresses, in cabinets, &c., presented to the late Earl of Shrewsbury on his accession to the earldom and estates after the trial in 1860, and a magnificent ancient casket, the outer glass case of which bears the inscription—‘La casset Talbot presente par Jean, premier Comte de Shreusburie, sur son mariage a Marguerite Beauclerc.’ On the walls, besides other paintings, is a fine full-length seated figure of Queen Adelaide. The ends of the room are Gothic screen-work, with doors and mirrors. One of these, at the east end, leads into another small library, and so on by a small gallery, denuded of its objects of interest, to the Chapel Corridor (elaborately groined and panelled in oak), from which the private apartments are gained, and which also leads direct to—

“The Chapel, which, although ruthlessly shorn of its relics, its paintings, its altar, its shrines, and all its more interesting objects, is still one of the most gorgeous and beautiful of rooms. It is enough to say that it is one of Pugin’s masterpieces, and that the stained glass is perhaps the finest that even Willement, by whom it was executed, ever produced. It is impossible to conceive anything finer than was the effect of this chapel when it was in perfect order.

The Conservatories.

“With the drawing-room, as I have said, an open archway connects another magnificent apartment, the Saloon, which has a fine oak-groined ceiling, with elegantly carved, gilt, and painted bosses. In the centre of the west side is a fine stained-glass window, representing Edward, the Black Prince, full length, in armour, and with his garter robes, painted by Muss; and opposite to this a doorway opens into a corridor leading to the drawing and other rooms. The view from the north end of the saloon, looking down its full length, across the splendid drawing-room, down the long vista of the conservatory, and into the octagon at the farthest end, is fine in the extreme, and is indeed matchless.

“The Corridor, of which I have just spoken, is one of the most dainty and minutely beautiful ‘bits’ of the whole building. It is of oak, the sides are panelled and gilt, and from small clustered pilasters rises the elaborate oak groining of the ceiling, the groining being what can only be expressed as ‘skeleton groining,’ the ribs alone being of oak, partly painted and gilt, and the space between them being filled in with a minute geometric pattern in stained glass. From this corridor a door in the north side opens into the—

“Small or Family Dining-Room, a fine sombre-looking apartment, about 25 feet square, and furnished with a magnificent central table, and every accompaniment that wealth can desire. The ceiling is of oak, panelled, and has a rich armorial cornice, with arms of Talbot, running around it. The chimney-piece, of dark oak, is a splendid piece of ancient carving. From the corridor another doorway leads to a staircase connecting other private apartments above, while at its east end it opens into—

“The Grand Dining-Hall, near which are the kitchens. This hall, which was being remodelled and altered by Pugin at the time of the Earl’s death, remains to this day in an unfinished state, but shows how truly grand in every way it would have been had it been completed. The roof is one of the finest imaginable, and from its centre rises a majestic louvre, which at once admits a subdued light and acts as a ventilator. It is of truly noble proportions, and the fire-places and carved stone chimney-pieces are grand in the extreme—the latter bearing the arms, crest, supporters, motto, chapeau, &c., of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The sides of the room were intended to be panelled, as was also the minstrels’ gallery, with carved oak, and a part of this is already placed. At the north end is a fine large window, the upper part of which is filled with armorial bearings, but the lower part has never been completed, and is filled in with plain quarries. The arms in this window are those of Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, Clifford, Beauchamp, De Valence, Comyn, Mountchesny, Nevile, Middleham, Clifford, Bohun, Strange of Blackmere, Tailebot, Troutbeke, Claveringe, Buckley, Pembroke, Borghese, Doria, Lovetoft, Mareschal, Strongbow, King Donald, Raby, Lacy, De Verdun, Castile and Leon, D’Angoulême, William the Conqueror, Bagot, Mexley, Aylmer, and others.

The Pagoda.

“From here a short corridor leads to a small vestibule, from which the other private apartments extend. Of these the principal one is the Boudoir of the Countess of Shrewsbury—a charming apartment, replete with every luxury and with every appliance which taste and art can dictate. The ‘Doria’ and other apartments are reached from near this by a circular staircase. From the vestibule the private entrance to the Towers is gained, and from it is the private way across the entrance gateway into the grounds; and also through the small tower and across the drawbridge the park is reached. The drawbridge crosses the moat, and the entrance is fully guarded, and has all the appliances of an old baronial castle.”[2]

And now let us speak briefly of the situation of Alton Towers, and of its grounds of matchless charms. Situate almost in the centre of England—in busy Staffordshire, but on the borders of picturesque Derbyshire—Alton Towers is within easy reach of several populous cities and towns, the active and laborious denizens of which frequently “breathe” in these always open gardens and grounds the pure and fragrant air.

The roads to it are, moreover, full of interest and surpassing beauty; approached from any side, the traveller passes through a country rich in the picturesque. Those who reach it from thronged and toiling Manchester, from active and energetic Derby, from the potteries of busy Staffordshire, are regaled by Nature on their way, and are refreshed before they drink from the full cup of loveliness with which the mansion and its grounds and gardens supply them.

The route from Derby passes by way of Egginton; Tutbury, whose grand old church and extensive ruins of the castle are seen to the left of the line; Sudbury, where the seat of Lord Vernon (Sudbury Hall) will be noticed to the right; Marchington, Scropton, and Uttoxeter. Here, at Uttoxeter Junction, the passenger for Alton Towers will alight, and, entering another carriage, proceed on his way, passing the town of Uttoxeter on his left, and Doveridge Hall, the seat of Lord Waterpark, on his right, by way of Rocester (where the branch line for Ashbourne and Dove-Dale joins in), to the Alton Station. Arrived here, he will notice, a short distance to the left, high up on a wooded cliff, the unfinished Roman Catholic Hospital of St. John, and on the right, close to the station, the entrance lodge to the Towers.

From Manchester the visitor proceeds by way of Stockport and Macclesfield to the North Rode Junction, and so on by Leek and Oakamoor, &c., through the beautiful scenery of the Churnet valley, to Alton Station, as before.

From the Staffordshire Potteries the visitor, after leaving Stoke-upon-Trent, will pass through Longton, another of the pottery towns, Blythe Bridge, Cresswell, and Leigh, to Uttoxeter, whence he will proceed in the same manner as if travelling from Derby.

There are, besides others of less note, two principal entrances to the park and grounds of Alton Towers. One of these, the “Quicksall” Lodge, is on the Uttoxeter Road, about a quarter of a mile from Ellastone. By this the “Earl’s Drive” is entered, and it is, for length and beauty, the most charming of the roads to the house. The drive is about three miles in length from the lodge to the house, and passes through some truly charming scenery along the vale and on the heights of the Churnet valley—the river Churnet being visible at intervals through the first part of its route. Within about half a mile of the house, on the right, will be seen the conservatory, ornamented with statues, busts, and vases, and on the left a lake of water. A little farther on is the Gothic temple, close to the road-side. At this point Alton Towers and the intervening gardens burst upon the eye in all their magnificence and beauty. It is a peep into a terrestrial paradise. Proceeding onwards another quarter of a mile through a plantation of pines, the noble mansion stands before us in all the fulness of its splendour. The lake, the lawn, the arcade bridge, the embattled terrace, the towers, and the surrounding foliage come broadly and instantaneously upon the view—a splendid and imposing picture—a place to be gazed on and wondered at. By this drive the Towers are reached by way of the castellated stable-screen, and so on over the bridge and the entrance to the gardens.

The other, and usual, lodge, is close by the Alton Station on the Churnet Valley (North Staffordshire) Railway. This lodge, designed by Pugin, and decorated with the sculptured arms of the family, is about a mile from the house, and the carriage-drive up the wood is on the ascent all the way. A path, called “the steps,” for foot passengers, turns off from the lodge, and winds and “zig-zags” its way up, arriving at the house opposite to the Clock Tower, and passing on its way some charming bits of rocky and wooded scenery.

The Choragic Temple.

The gardens are entered from the park by a pair of gates (on either side of which is a superb cedar) in an archway, under the “Earl’s Drive” Bridge. Near this spot is the Choragic Temple, designed from the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, at Athens; it contains a bust of Earl Charles, the founder of the gardens, with the appropriate inscription—“He made the desert smile.” From here the visitor then proceeds along a winding path with an arcaded wall on one side, and the valley, from which come up the music of the stream and the bubbling of the miniature fountains, on the other. This passes between myriads of standard roses on either side, and long continuous beds of “ribbon gardening,” or what, from its splendid array of continuous lines of colours, may very appropriately be termed “rainbow gardening,” and pathways winding about in every direction, among roses, hollyhocks, and shrubs and flowers of divers kinds, to a pleasant spot to the left, where is a terrace garden approached by steps with pedestals bearing choice sculptures. In the centre is a sundial; behind this, a fine group of sculpture, and behind this again a fountain, surmounted by a lion. The wall is covered with luxuriant ivy, and headed by innumerable vases of gay-coloured flowers, above which, a little to the back, rises one of the many conservatories that are scattered over this portion of the grounds.

Passing onwards, the visitor soon afterwards reaches the Grand Conservatories—a splendid pile of buildings on his left. These conservatories are three hundred feet in length, and consist of a central house for palm-trees, and other plants of a similar nature; two glass-roofed open corridors filled with hardy plants, and decorated with gigantic vases filled with flowers; and, at one end, a fine orangery, and at the other end a similar house filled with different choice plants and trees. In front of the Grand Conservatory the grounds are terraced to the bottom of the valley, and immediately opposite, on the distant heights, is the “Harper’s Cottage.” At the end of the broad terrace-walk, in front of the conservatory, is The Temple—a semi-open temple, or alcove, of circular form, fitted with seats and central table. From this charming spot, which the visitor will find too tempting to pass by without a rest, a magnificent view of the grounds is obtained. Immediately beneath are the terraces, with their parterres, ponds, arcades, and fountains, receding gently from the view till they are lost in the deep valley, beyond which rise the wooded heights, terrace on terrace, on the other side, and terminated with tall trees and the buildings of the tower. From the temple a broad pathway leads on to the Gothic Temple, and so to the modern Stonehenge—an imitation Druidical circle—and other interesting objects. Retracing his path, the visitor will do well to descend by the steps to a lower terrace, where he will find an open alcove beneath the temple. From here many paths diverge amid beds of the choicest flowers laid out with the most exquisite taste, and of every variety of form, and studded in all directions with vases and statuary.

Alton Towers, from the Lower Terrace.

Descending a flight of steps beneath a canopy of ivy, a rosery, arched behind an open arcade of stone, is reached. This arcade is decorated with gigantic vases and pedestals, and from here, arcade after arcade, terrace after terrace, and flight of steps after flight of steps, lead down to the bottom of the valley, where the “lower lake,” filled with water-lilies and other aquatic plants, is found. In this lake stands the Pagoda, or Chinese Temple. Before reaching this, about halfway down the hill-side, will be seen the “upper lake,” a charming sheet of water, filled with water-lilies and other plants, and containing, among its other beauties, a number of fish and water-fowl. Over this lake is a prettily designed foot-bridge forming a part of what is called “Jacob’s Ladder”—a sloping pathway with innumerable turnings, and twinings, and flights of steps. Arrived at the Pagoda Fountain, the visitor will choose between returning by the same route, or crossing or going round the lake, and pursuing his way up the opposite side, by winding and zig-zag pathways and small plateau, to the top of the heights.

The ornamental grounds are, as will have been gathered from this description, a deep valley or ravine, which, made lovely in the highest and wildest degree by nature, has been converted by man into a kind of earthly paradise. The house stands at one end or edge of this ravine, and commands a full view of the beauties with which it is studded. These garden grounds, although only some fifty or sixty acres in extent, are, by their very character, and by their innumerable winding pathways, and their diversified scenery, made to appear of at least twice that extent. Both sides of the ravine or gorge, are formed into a series of terraces, each of which is famed for some special charm of natural or artificial scenery it contains or commands; while temples, grottoes, fountains, rockeries, statues, vases, conservatories, refuges, alcoves, steps, and a thousand-and-one other beauties, seem to spring up everywhere and add their attractions to the general scene. Without wearying the visitor by taking him along these devious paths—which he will follow at will—a word or two on some of the main features of the gardens, besides those of which we have already spoken, will suffice. Some of these are:—

The Harper’s Cottage, in which the Welsh harper—a fine old remnant of the bardic race of his country, and an esteemed retainer of the family—resided, is near the summit of the heights opposite to the “Grand Conservatories.” It is in the Swiss style, and commands one of the most gorgeous views of the grounds and their surroundings. It was built from the designs of Mr. Fradgley, who was employed during no less than twenty-two years on works at Alton Towers.

The Corkscrew Fountain, standing in the midst of a pool filled with aquatic plants, is a column of unequal thickness of five tiers, each of which is fluted up its surface in a spiral direction, giving it a curious and pleasing effect.

The Gothic Temple, at the summit of the heights, on the opposite side from the “Harper’s Cottage,” and closely adjoining the “Earl’s Drive,” is a light and picturesque building of four stories in height, with a spiral staircase leading to the top. From it a magnificent view of the grounds, the towers, and the surrounding country, is obtained.

The Refuge is a pretty little retreat—a recessed alcove with inner room in fact—which the visitor, if weary with “sight-seeing,” or, for a time, satiated with beauty, will find pleasant for a rest.

The Gothic Temple.

The Pagoda Fountain is built in form of a Chinese pagoda. It is placed in the lower lake, and from its top rises a majestic jet of water which falls down into the lake and adds much to the beauty of the place.

Stonehenge.—This is an imitation “Druidic Circle” formed of stones, of about nine tons in weight each; it is highly picturesque, and forms a pleasing feature. Near to it is the upper lake.

The Flag Tower, near the house, is a prospect-tower of six stories in height. It is a massive square building with circular turrets at its angles. The view from the top is one of the most beautiful and extensive which the country can boast—embracing the house, gardens, grounds, and broad domains of Alton Towers; the village of Alton with its church and parsonage; the ruins of the old castle of the De Verduns; the new monastic buildings—the Hospital of St. John, the Institution, the Nunnery, and the Chapel; the valley of the Churnet; Toot Hill; and the distant country stretching out for miles around.

Ina’s Rock is one of the many interesting spots in the grounds. It is about three-quarters of a mile from the Towers, on what is called the “Rock Walk.” It is said that after a great battle fought near the spot (on a place still called the “battle-field”), between Ceolred and Ina, Kings of Mercia and Wessex, the latter chieftain held a parliament at this rock; whence it takes its names. We have thus guided the reader through the house and grounds of Alton Towers.

The district around Alton Towers is rich in interesting places, and in beautiful localities where the visitor may while away many an hour in enjoyment. The monastic buildings, on the site of old Alton Castle, are charmingly situated, and deserve a few words at our hands. These we quote from Mr. Jewitt’s “Alton Towers:”—“The monastic buildings, which form such a striking and picturesque object from the railway station, and indeed from many points in the surrounding neighbourhood, were erected from the designs, and under the immediate superintendence, of the late Mr. Pugin, and are, for stern simplicity and picturesque arrangement, perhaps the most successful of all his works. The buildings have never been—and probably never will be—completed, and they remain a sad instance of the mutability of human plans. Commenced at the suggestion, and carried out at the expense, of a Roman Catholic nobleman; planned and erected by a Roman Catholic architect; and intended as a permanent establishment for Roman Catholic priests, &c., &c., the buildings rose in great pride and beauty, and were continued with the utmost spirit, until the death of Earl Bertram, when, after the trials I have recounted, the estates passed into Protestant hands, the works were at once discontinued, and the buildings have since been allowed, with the exception of the chapel and the apartments devoted to the residence of a priest (and the school), to become dilapidated. The castle grounds on which these buildings are erected are situated near the church, the buildings forming three sides of a quadrangle—one being the school and institution, and the others the cloisters, priest’s house, chapel, and other buildings. From this the moat is crossed by a wooden bridge to the ruins of the castle and the hospital of St. John. The buildings are beautifully shown on the engraving on the next page.

Part of the Grounds.

“The erection of these Roman Catholic buildings gave rise to much annoyance, and much ill-feeling was engendered in the neighbourhood; and a hoax was played on Pugin, whose susceptibilities were strong and hasty. It was as follows: One day—of all days ‘April fool day’—he received the following letter:—

Alton—Hospital of St. John.

“‘Dear Sir—It is with deep sorrow that I venture to inform you of a circumstance which has just come to my knowledge; and, though an entire stranger, I take the liberty of addressing you, being aware of your zeal for the honour and welfare of the Catholic Church. What, then, will be your grief and indignation (if you have not already heard it) at being told that—fearing the bazaar, in behalf of the Monastery of St. Bernard, may prove unsuccessful—it has been thought that more people would be drawn to it were the monks to hold the stalls! Was there ever such a scandal given to our most holy religion? It may have been done ignorantly or innocently; but it is enough to make a Catholic of feeling shudder! I am not in a situation to have the slightest influence in putting an end to this most dreadful proceeding; but knowing you to be well acquainted with the head of the English Catholics—the good Earl of Shrewsbury—would you not write to him, and request him to use his influence (which must be great) in stopping the sacrilege, for such it really is? Think of your Holy Church thus degraded and made a by-word in the mouths of Protestants! I know how you love and venerate her. Aid her then now, and attempt to rescue her from this calamity! Pray excuse the freedom with which I have written, and believe me, dear sir, A Sincere Lover of my Church, but an Enemy to the Protestant Principle of Bazaars.’

“Pugin wrote immediately to the earl in an impassioned strain, but, in reference to this trick, when the light had at length dawned upon him, in writing to Lord Shrewsbury, he says—‘I have found out at last that the alarm about the monks at the bazaar was all a hoax; and rumour mentions some ladies, not far distant from the Towers, as the authors. I must own it was capitally done, and put me into a perfect fever for some days. I only read the letter late in the day, and sent a person all the way to the General Post Office to save the post. I never gave the day of the month a moment’s consideration. I shall be better prepared for the next 1st of April.’

“The school, which was intended also as a literary institution, a hall, and a lecture-room for Alton, will be seen to the right on entering the grounds; the house, to the left, now occupied as a convent, being intended for a residence of the schoolmaster. In the original design the cloistered part of the establishment was intended to be the convent (the chapel being a nuns’ chapel), and the parish church of Alton was intended to be rebuilt in the same style as the splendid church at Cheadle. The hospital was to be for decayed priests. The chapel is a beautiful little building, highly decorated in character, and remarkably pure and good in proportions. In it, to the north of the altar, are buried Earl John and his Countess, and to the south Earl Bertram. The following are the inscriptions on the brasses to their memory:—

“‘Hic jacet corpus Johannis quondam Comitis Salopiæ XVI. qui hunc Sacellum et hospitium construere fecit A.D. MDCCCXLIV. Orate pro anima misserimi peccatoris obiit Neapoli die IX No MDCCCLII Ætatis suæ LXI.’

“‘In Memoriam Mariæ Teresiæ, Johannis Comitis Salopiæ Viduæ, Natæ Wexfordiæ XXII Maii MDCCXCV. Parissis obiit IV Junii MDCCCLVI quorum animas Viventium Amor Sanctissimus incor unum conflasse Videbatur corpora eodem sepulchro deposita misericordiam ejusdem redemptoris expectant. R.I.P.’

“‘Orate pro anima Bertrami Artheri Talbot XVII Com: Salop: ob: die: 10º August 1856. Requiescat in pace.’

“In the cloisters is another beautiful brass, on which is the following inscription:—

“‘Good Christian people of your charity pray for the soul of Mistress Anne Talbot wife of Will^m Talbot Esquire of Castle Talbot Wexford who died on the V day of May A.D. MDCCCXLIV. Also for the soul of the above named Will^m Talbot Esq^re who died the II^nd day of Aug^t MDCCCXLIX aged LXXXVI years. May they rest in peace.’

“On a slab on the floor:—

“‘Of your charity pray for the soul of Sister Mary Joseph Healy of the Order of Mercy. Who died 4th August 1857 in the 31st year of her age, and the 5th of her Religious Profession. R.I.P.’

“On a brass:—

“‘Orato pro anima Domini Caroli quondam Comitis Salopiæ qui obiit VI die Aprilis anno domini MDCCCXXVII Ætatis suæ LXIV.’”[3]

Alton Church is also worthy of a visit, not because of any special architectural features which it contains, but because of its commanding situation and its near proximity to the Castle. It is of Norman foundation. The village itself (visitors to the locality will be glad to learn that it contains a very comfortable inn, the “Wheatsheaf”) is large and very picturesque, and its immediate neighbourhood abounds in delightful walks and in glorious “bits” of scenery.

Demon’s Dale—a haunted place concerning which many strange stories are current—is also about a mile from Alton, and is highly picturesque.

Croxden Abbey (or Crokesden Abbey) is a grand old ruin, within an easy walk of Alton. It was founded by Bertram de Verdun, owner of Alton Castle, in 1176.

It will be readily understood that the renown of Alton Towers arises principally from the garden and grounds by which the mansion is environed. But if to nature it is indebted for its hills and dells, its steep ascents and graceful undulations, art has done much to augment its attractions. It may have been a “desert” when Earl Charles strove, and successfully, to convert it into a paradise; but the rough material was ready to his hand, and to taste, with judicious expenditure, the task was not difficult to make it what it became, and now is—one of the most exquisitely beautiful demesnes in the British dominions.

COBHAM HALL.

THE county of Kent is one of the pleasantest of the English shires; rich in cultivated and pictorial beauty, it has been aptly and justly called “the garden of England.” Patrician trees are found everywhere: for centuries the hand of ruthless and reckless war has never touched them; its chalky soil is redolent of health; its pasture lands are proverbially fertile; its gentle hills are nowhere barren; in many parts it borders the sea; and to-day, as it did ages ago,—

“It doth advance

A haughty brow against the coast of France;”

the men of Kent are, as they ever have been, and by God’s blessing ever will be, the “vanguard of liberty.” Moreover, it is rich, above all other counties, in traditions and antiquities; some of its customs have continued unchanged for centuries; its ecclesiastical pre-eminence is still retained; while some of the noblest and most perfect of British baronial mansions are to be found in the graciously endowed county that borders the metropolis.

Among the most perfect of its stately mansions is that to which we introduce the reader—Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley, Baron Clifton.[4] Its proximity to the metropolis—from which, if we measure distances by time, it is separated by little more than an hour—would alone supply a sufficient motive for its selection into this series. It is situated about four miles south-east of Gravesend, nearly midway between that town and Rochester, but a mile or so out of the direct road. The narrow coach-paths which lead to it are shaded by pleasant hedgerows, and run between lines of hop-gardens—the comely vineyards of England.

Cobham Hall.

The mansion stands in the midst of scenery of surpassing loveliness, alternating hill and valley, rich in “patrician trees” and “plebeian underwood,” dotted with pretty cottages, and interspersed with primitive villages: while here and there are scattered “old houses” of red brick, with their carved wooden gables and tall twisted chimneys; and glimpses are caught occasionally of the all-glorious Thames. A visit to Cobham Hall, therefore, furnishes a most refreshing and invigorating luxury to dwellers in the metropolis; and the liberality of its noble owner adds to the rich banquet of Nature as rare a treat as can be supplied by Art. The Hall, independent of the interest it derives from its quaint architecture, its fine, although not unmixed, remains of the Tudor style, contains a gallery of pictures, by the best masters of the most famous schools, large in number and of rare value.

Before we commence our description of the Hall, the demesne, the Church, the College, and the village of Cobham,[5] it is necessary that we supply some information concerning the several families under whose guardianship they have flourished.

Cobham Hall has not descended from sire to son through many generations. Its present lord is in no way, or at least but remotely, connected with the ancient family who for centuries governed the “men of Kent,” and who, at one period, possessed power second only to that of the sovereign. That race of bold barons has been long extinct, the last of them dying in miserable poverty; and if their proud blood is still to be found within their once princely barony, it runs, probably, through the veins of some tiller of the soil.

The Cobhams had been famous from the earliest recorded times. In Philipot’s “Survey of Kent”—1659—it is said that “Cobham afforded a seat and a surname to that noble and splendid family; and certainly,” adds the quaint old writer, “this place was the cradle or seminary of persons who, in elder ages, were invested in places of as signall and principal a trust or eminence, as they could move in, in the narrow orbe of a particular county.” In the reign of King John, Henry de Cobham gave 1,000 marks to the king for his favour. He left three sons, viz., John, who was Sheriff of Kent, Justice of Common Pleas, and Judge Itinerant; Reginald, also Sheriff of Kent, Constable of Dover Castle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports; and William, also Justice Itinerant. The eldest, John de Cobham, was succeeded by his son John, who in turn became Sheriff of Kent, one of the Justices of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, and Baron of the Exchequer. His son Henry de Cobham was Governor of Guernsey and Jersey, Constable of Dover Castle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports; so was also, again, his son Henry, who likewise was Governor of Tunbridge Castle, and was summoned to Parliament 6 to 9 Edward III. He was succeeded by his son John de Cobham, Admiral of the Fleet, Justice of Oyer and Terminer, and Ambassador to France, who in “10 Richard II. was one of the thirteen appointed by the predominant lords to govern the realm, but was after impeached for treason, and had judgment pronounced against him, but obtained pardon, being sent prisoner to the island of Jersey.” Dying in the ninth year of Henry IV., he left his granddaughter, Joan, his heiress. This lady married for her third husband Sir John Oldcastle, who assumed the title of Lord Cobham. Reginald de Cobham, half brother to John, was Justice of King’s Bench, an Admiral, an Ambassador to the Pope, and commander of the van of the army at Crecy. He was succeeded by his son, Reginald de Cobham, who likewise was succeeded by his son Reginald; he left an only daughter as heir.

No less than four Kentish gentlemen of the name embarked with the first Edward in his “victorious and triumphant expedition into Scotland,” and were knighted for services rendered to that prince in his “successful and auspicious siege of Caerlaverock.” With Reginald de Cobham, as has been shown, the male line determined. Joan, his daughter, is said to have had five husbands, by only one of whom, Sir Reginald Braybrooke, she left issue, Joan, who being married to Sir Thomas Broke, of the county of Somerset, Knight, “knitt Cobham, and a large income beside, to her husband’s patrimony.”[6]

Their eldest son, Sir Edward Broke, was summoned to parliament, as Baron Cobham, in the 23rd Henry VI. In 1559 Sir William Broke entertained Queen Elizabeth at Cobham Hall, in the first year of her reign, “with a noble welcome as she took her progress through the county of Kent.” His son and successor, Henry, Lord Cobham, was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports; but “being too deeply concerned in the design of Sir Walter Raleigh,” he was deprived of his estates, though not his life.[7]

His younger brother, George, was executed; but Cobham “lived many years after in great misery and poverty,” dying in January, 1619; and sharing the humble grave of some lowly peasant, apart from the magnificent tombs which cover the remains of his great and gallant ancestors. He is said, by Weldon, to have been reduced to such extreme necessity, that “he had starved, but for a trencher-scraper, some time his servant at court, who relieved him with scraps.”

A sister of Lord Cobham’s was married to Secretary Sir Robert Cecil: his estimable and greatly beloved lady died in January, 1596-7. She was also a kinswoman of Sir Walter Raleigh, and in one of his letters to Cecil he says:—“It is trew that you have lost a good and vertuous wife and my sealf an honorable frinde and kinswoman. Butt ther was a tyme when shee was unknowne to you, for whom you then lamented not. Shee is now no more your’s, nor of your acquayntance, butt immortall, and not needinge nor knowynge your love or sorrow. Therfor you shall but greve for that which now is as it was, when not your’s; only bettered by the differance in this, that shee hath past the weresome jurney of this darke worlde, and hath possession of her inheritance. Shee hath left behind her the frute of her love, for whos sakes you ought to take care for your sealf, that you leve them not without a gwyde, and not by grevinge to repine att His will that gave them yow, or by sorrowing to dry upp your own tymes that ought to establish them.” This lady was sister to two of the unhappy conspirators of 1603 and kinswoman to the third, as well as being wife of the chief officer of state by whom these conspiracies had to be brought to light. Well therefore was it, for her, that her pure spirit had taken its flight before the time of attainder of her brothers, Henry, Lord Cobham, and George Broke, and their baseness by falsity and otherwise in leading the much-injured Raleigh to the scaffold. “Whatever mysteries,” says Mr. Edwards, “may yet hang over the plots and counterplots of 1603, it is certain that George Broke proved in the issue to have been the instrument of the ruin alike of his brother Cobham and of Raleigh. It is also certain that mere ‘credulity of the practices of malice and envy’ could never have ripened, save in a very congenial soil, into the consummate baseness displayed both in the examinations and in some of the letters of George Broke after his arrest. In certain particulars his baseness exceeded his brother Cobham’s, and that is saying not a little as to its depth.” His estates, at the time of their confiscation, are estimated to have been worth £7,000 per annum; and he possessed £30,000 in goods and chattels. His nephew was restored in blood; but not to the title or property. These were transferred—“the manor and seat of Cobham Hall, and the rest of Lord Cobham’s lands”—by James I. to one of his kinsmen, Ludovick Stuart, Duke of Lennox, whose male line became extinct in 1672.

The Lady Katherine, sister of the last Duke of Richmond and Lennox, married into the princely family of the O’Briens of Thomond; but the Duke “dying greatly in debt” the estates were sold. Cobham Hall was purchased by the second husband of the Lady Katherine, Sir Joseph Williamson, who resided there for some time.[8] In 1701 he died, bequeathing two-thirds of his property to his widow. This proportion descended, on her demise, to Edward Lord Clifton and Cornbury, afterwards Lord Clarendon, who had married the sole child of this Lady Katherine, by her first husband, Henry Lord O’Brien;[9] and on Lord Clarendon’s death without issue, in 1713, his sister, Lady Theodosia Hyde, inherited; she married John Bligh, of the kingdom of Ireland, Esq.; created, in 1721, an Irish peer by the title of Lord Clifton of Rathmore, and, in 1725, Earl of Darnley in that kingdom.

For some years the Cobham estate was in Chancery. After a tedious suit it was purchased by Lord Darnley for the sum of £51,000, to the third part of which a Mrs. Hornby became entitled, as relict of the gentleman to whom Sir Joseph Williamson had devised one third part.[10]

The Blighs are an ancient family, connected with Devonshire and other parts of the West of England as well as with Ireland. One of them, a merchant of Plymouth, an ancestor of the present peer, married Catherine Fuller, sister to William Fuller, Bishop of Limerick and Lincoln (1667-1675). In 1721 John Bligh of Rathmore, in the kingdom of Ireland, Esquire, who had married the Lady Theodosia Hyde, sister to Edward, Earl of Clarendon (whose wife Catherine, daughter of Katherine Lady Thomond, who had successfully claimed the barony of Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, as being descended from the first Lord Clifton, inherited the said barony from her mother), from whom he inherited the title and the estates, was created Baron Clifton of Rathmere, in the kingdom of Ireland, in 1721.

The Three Sisters.

In 1723 he was created Viscount Darnley of Athboy, and in 1725 Earl of Darnley, both in the peerage of Ireland. He also succeeded to the title of Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, by which title he and his successors sit in the House of Lords. His lordship was succeeded, as second Earl of Darnley, by his son, who was again, on his death, succeeded by his son John, as third earl. This nobleman, who was born in 1719, married in 1766 Mary, daughter and heiress of John Stoyt, of Street, co. Westmeath, and by her, who died in 1803, had issue John, afterwards fourth earl; Lady Mary, married to Sir Lawrence Palk, Bart.; the Hon. Edward Bligh, a general in the army; Lady Theodosia, married to her cousin, Thomas Cherbourgh Bligh; Lady Catherine, married to Hon. Charles William Stewart, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry; and the Hon. William, a colonel in the army. The Earl died in 1781, and was succeeded by his son John, as fourth earl. He married, in 1791, Elizabeth, daughter of the Right Hon. William Brownlow of Lurgan, and by her had issue Edward, fifth earl; Lady Mary, married to Charles Brownlow, Esq.; Hon. John Duncan Bligh, Secretary of Legation at St. Petersburgh; and the Lady Elizabeth, married to the Rev. J. Brownlow. His lordship died in 1831, and was succeeded by his son Edward, fifth earl, who (born in 1795), married in 1825 Emma Jane, third daughter of Sir Henry Brooke Parnell, Bart., M.P.,—who, having held office as Secretary at War, Paymaster-General of the Forces, and Treasurer of the Navy and Ordnance, was created Baron Congleton in 1841,—and sister to the present Lord Congleton. By this lady, who is still living, his lordship had issue, John Stuart Bligh, sixth and present earl of Darnley; the Hon. and Rev. Edward Vesey Bligh; the Hon. and Rev. Henry Bligh; the Lady Elizabeth Caroline, and the Lady Emma Bess, both of whom are married and bear the name of Cust—the first being the wife of Reginald Cust, Esq., and the latter the wife of the Rev. Arthur Perceval Purey-Cust. His lordship died in 1835, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John Stuart Bligh, as sixth earl.

The present peer, John Stuart Bligh, sixth Earl of Darnley, Viscount Darnley of Athboy, Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, and Baron Clifton of Rathmore, was born in 1827, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, being B.A. in 1848, and M.A. in 1851. He married in 1850 the Lady Harriet Mary Pelham, eldest daughter of the third Earl of Chichester, and has by her issue, living, the Hon. Edward Henry Stuart Bligh, Lord Clifton, who was born in 1851; the Hon. Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, born 1859; the Hon. Arthur Frederick Pelham Bligh, born 1865; the Lady Edith Louisa Mary, born 1853; the Lady Kathleen Susan Emma, born 1854; the Lady Alice Isabella Harriet, born 1860; the Lady Mary Rose Florence, born 1868; and the Lady Constance Violet Lucy, born in 1869. His lordship is a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Kent; Hereditary High Steward of Gravesend with Milton; and Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry. He is patron of the living of Cobham. He has, besides Cobham Hall, a seat in Ireland, Clifton Lodge, Athboy, co. Meath, and a town residence.

The arms of the Earl of Darnley are:—Azure, a griffin segreant, or, between three crescents, argent. Crest:—A griffin’s head, erased, or, Supporters:—Two griffins, wings elevated, or, ducally collared and chained, azure. Motto:—“Finem Respice.”

Such is a brief history of the several noble families through whom the mansion, demesne, and estates of Cobham have passed.

The Lodge.

The Hall is backed by a noble park, amply stocked with deer, and containing trees of great variety and immense size, some of them measuring above thirty feet in circumference. It comprises 1,800 acres, and encloses an area of about seven miles. The old approach, long disused, was through an avenue of lime trees, consisting of four rows, and extending more than half a mile in length from the dependent village. The present entrance is through a red-brick, turreted gateway, adjacent to which is the “Lodge.” On nearing the house, the eye encounters a cedar of magnificent growth, and to the left are the gardens, into which there are two terrace-walks—one from the great gate, and another, at a considerable elevation, from the suite of apartments which constitute the first floor. The view we have given is the more ancient portion of the venerable edifice—the north wing, with which the south wing mainly corresponds. They are, however, connected by a centre, built by Inigo Jones; and this centre, which consists of a façade with Corinthian pilasters, is out of keeping with the quaint gables, octagonal turrets, ornamental doorways, carved cornices, projecting mullioned windows, and elaborated chimneys, which distinguish the earlier dwelling of the Cobhams. The structure thus assumes the form of a half H, the wings being terminated by octagonal towers; a sunken wall in front encloses a quadrangular lawn, ornamented with vases and statues. The wings exhibit the dates 1582 and 1594, and retain all the characteristics of the later Tudor style; although, as we have intimated, it has been materially corrupted by the several alterations to which, from time to time, the mansion has been subjected. The ordinary entrance is through a vaulted passage, “built in the form of a Gothic cloister by James Wyatt,” which contains the arms of the Cobhams, with the date 1587. This passage leads to the grand staircase, and the several apartments on the ground-floor. The first to which strangers are conducted is the dining-hall, which contains an elaborately carved black-and-white marble chimney-piece, having quaint and curious figures and buildings, and a series of portraits of rare excellence. The Music-room, one of the suite added to the ancient building, affords a brilliant contrast to the sombre and solid character of the dining-room. It contains but one picture—full-length portraits of the Lords John and Bernard Stuart, sons of the Duke of Lennox—a chef-d’œvre of Vandyke. The chimney-piece is formed of the purest white marble, sculptured in bas-relief after Guido’s “Aurora,” by the elder Westmacott, with fauns life-size, as supporters. The ceiling was designed by Inigo Jones; it is divided into several square and circular compartments, with a deep oval in the centre, “superbly gilt and enriched by appropriate ornaments, among which are twelve pendant coronets.” The apartment is in length 50 feet, in breadth 36 feet, and height 32 feet! and although superbly ornamented and richly gilt—the pillars of the Composite order, being of white marble, and the lining of scagliola—the whole is in fine harmony with the grace and chasteness of the design. There are two galleries, one of which contains an organ. The vestibule is a small chamber, decorated with valuable vases of verd-antique. The Library contains a series of portraits of eminent literary men—Bolingbroke, Sidney, Shakespere, Swift, and others; none of them, however, advance strong claims to originality. On the walls of the Great Staircase are hung several large pictures, which may bear examination before the gallery is entered.

The grand staircase conducts, first to the Portrait Gallery, and next to the Picture Gallery. The walls of the former are hung with portraits, among which are many of exceeding interest, including those of heroes, statesmen, kings and queens, church reformers, and poets, mingled without regard to date or order. At the end of this gallery are, branching to the right and left, the private apartments of the family; and in a room opening out of the west end of the Picture Gallery, Queen Elizabeth is reported to have slept when she honoured the Lord Cobham with a visit during her progress through Kent. In the centre of the ancient ceiling are still preserved her arms, with the date, 1599. The Picture Gallery is the great “show-room” of the house. It is a noble apartment, the walls of which are covered with works of Art, of rare value and unsurpassed excellence, the productions of nearly all the great masters of Italy—including admirable examples of Guido, Titian, Salvator Rosa, Rubens, Raphael, Spagnoletto, P. Veronese, Giorgione, N. Poussin, and Guercino.

Every part of the venerable edifice contains, indeed, some object of interest. The rooms, and halls, and galleries are thronged with rare and beautiful works of Art; a series of perfect vases from Herculaneum lie on the tables of the Picture Gallery; several antique busts and statues line the hall; a magnificent bath, of red Egyptian granite, is placed in the entrance passage; and the furniture and interior decorations are all of corresponding excellence and beauty.

Although necessarily limited in our description of Cobham Hall, we have sufficiently shown the rare treat a visit to it will afford those who, “in populous city pent,” desire to convert occasional holidays into contributions to intellectual enjoyment. The Hall and its contents will amply repay examination; and the noble park is full of natural treasures—thronged with deer, singularly abundant in singing birds, and containing trees unsurpassed in magnificent size and graceful proportions. A group of these trees, known as “the Three Sisters” (why we cannot say), we have engraved. One of the walks conducts to a hillock, from the summit of which there is a splendid prospect of the adjacent country, commanding views of the Thames and Medway, and taking in the venerable castle, cathedral, and town of Rochester, the dockyards at Sheerness, and the whole course of the great English river to its mouth at the Nore. The pedestrian, pursuing this route, will pass the Mausoleum, an elegant structure, built conformably with the will of the third Earl of Darnley, and designed for the sepulture of his family. It was never consecrated.

But Cobham has other objects of interest: the venerable Church, and no less venerable “College.” The “Church,” dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, stands upon elevated ground at the entrance of the village. It consists of a nave, aisles, and chancel, with an embattled tower, entered by an antique porch. The tower is obviously of a more recent date than the chancel; the former is very ancient. As in many of the Kentish churches, the walls were formerly painted in fresco, of which evidence may be easily obtained by those who examine them narrowly; the steps of the altar are paved with encaustic tiles, of about the period of Edward III., of various patterns, but most of them containing the fleur-de-lis. The whole aspect of the place indeed supplies indubitable proof of very remote antiquity. It has been recently restored, but with sound judgment and skill, by the accomplished architect, Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A.

Interior of the Church.

The roof of huge oak rafters, the Gothic arches, the brasses, broken and entire, which cover the floor, the quaint monuments let into the walls, the delicately-sculptured piscina, the sedilia of carved stone, the singular font, the rude vestry-room with its massive oak chest, the Scripture passages painted on the walls, all bespeak the antiquity of the building.

“Nearly in the centre is the still beautiful tomb of Sir Thomas Broke, the Lady Joan, and their ten sons and four daughters. It is of white marble, over which, upon a black slab, lie the effigies of the knight and dame. On either side are those of five of their sons, kneeling, and wearing tabards, with their swords girded on. The figures of the four daughters are carved on the east and west ends of the superb monument. It bears the date 1561, under the arms of the Brokes quartered with those of the Cobhams.

“On the floor of the chancel are the famous ‘Cobham Brasses,’ the most perfect and most numerous assemblage now existing in the kingdom. The series consists of thirteen, recording the memory of the Cobhams and Brokes, ‘lords and barons of this manor of Cobham, with many of their kindred, who for many descents did flourish in honourable reputation.’ Of the thirteen, eight are in honour of the knights, and five are memorials of the dames. These brasses, one and all, deserve the most careful examination and notice. The earliest is to the memory of John de Cobham, the first Knight Banneret, and Constable of Rochester; he is dressed in a shirt of mail: round his waist is a rich girdle, sustaining a long sword. Eight lines of Norman French are inscribed round the verge of the slab. The others are to Maude, Lady Cobham (1370), probably wife of Baron Cobham, who was Warden of the Cinque Ports in the time of Edward III., who is represented with a dog at her feet. Over her head are the words ‘Icy gist dame Maude de Cobham.’ Maude, Lady Cobham (c. 1385) supposed to have been the wife of Thomas de Cobham. She has a flounce of fur at the bottom of her dress. There are the remains of a mutilated canopy over her, and a fragment of inscription says, ‘Icy gist dame Maude de Cobehm qe....’ Margaret, Lady Cobham (1385), wife of John de Cobham, the founder of Cobham College. This is a remarkably beautiful canopied brass; the finial of the canopy bearing a figure of the Virgin and Child. Around the brass is the inscription, ‘Isy gist dame Margarete de Cobeham, iadiis fille a noble en le Comte de Deuenischire; feme le sire de Cobeham, foundour de ... morust le secounde in dimoys D’agust lan de grace, MCCCLXXXV., lalme de qy deux eut mercy. Amen.’ Joan, Lady Cobham (c. 1320), who was daughter of John, Lord Beauchamp of Stoke-under-Hamden, and first wife of Sir John de Cobham. The inscription, in Longobardic capitals, is:—

“‘Dame Jone de Kobeham gist isi
Deus de sa alme eit merci
Kike pur le Alme Priera
Quaraunte jours de pardoun avera.’”

Reginald de Cobham (c. 1420), an ecclesiastic, under a triple canopy, the shaft and some other portions being lost. Sir Thomas de Cobham, a knight in mixed armour, 1367.

The College Porch.

Ralph de Cobham, 1405, a semi-effigy in armour, holding in his hands a tablet, bearing the inscription in old English characters. John de Cobham, the founder of the College, bearing in his hands the model of a church. John Broke and Lady Margaret his wife, under a rich canopy with pendants and other ornaments, with triangular compartments, containing circles with shields, one of which bears the crown of thorns, and the other the five wounds; between the pinnacles, in the centre, is a curious representation of the Trinity, in which the Deity is delineated with a triple crown, and the Holy Spirit has a human face. The figure of the knight is gone, but that of his lady remains; and beneath are groups of eight sons and ten daughters. Sir Reginald Braybroke, the second husband of Joan, Lady Cobham. Sir Nicholas Hauberk, her third husband. Joan de Cobham: she died, as appears from the inscription, ‘on the day of St. Hilary the Bishop, A.D. 1433.’ At her feet are six sons and four daughters; and surrounding her, are six escutcheons of the Cobham arms and alliances. Sir Thomas Broke and one of his three wives. Below them are seven sons and five daughters. Sir Thomas died 1529.”

“The College of Cobham” is now only a collection of almshouses, to which presentations are made—of old people, without restriction to either sex—as vacancies occur, by the parish and ten other parishes adjacent. It lies immediately south of the church, and is entered by a small Gothic gateway. Its occupants are twenty aged men and women, who have each a little dwelling, with a neat garden and an allowance monthly, sufficient to secure the necessaries of life. It is a quadrangular building, of stone, measuring about 60 feet by 50; and contains a large hall, with painted windows, a roof of blackened rafters, an old oak screen, and a fire-place of cut stone. The history of the college is curious and interesting. A college or chantry was originally founded here, about the year 1362, by John de Cobham, thence called “the founder,” in the reign of Edward III. In the Church is a brass to the memory of William Tanner, Master of the College, who died in 1418. The brass consists of a half-length of the master, in clerical costume, with the inscription in black letter:—“Hic jacet Willmus Tannere qui prim obiit magister istuis Collegii xxii. die mensis Junii Anno Dni. M°CCCC°XVIII. cujus anime propicietur deus Amen.” Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth it was rebuilt, as appears by a record—“finished in September 1598”—inscribed over the south portal, under the arms and alliances of the Brokes, Lords Cobham. The endowments of the old foundation were ample, and were, with the college itself, bestowed by Henry VIII., at the dissolution, upon George, Lord Cobham, who had the “king’s roiall assent and licence by hys grace’s word, with any manner of letters patent or other writings, to purchase and receyve to his heires for ever, of the late master and brethren, of the college or chauntry of Cobham, in the countie of Kent, now being utterly dissolved, the scite of the same colledge or chauntry, and al and singular their heridaments and possessions, as well temporall as ecclesiasticall, wheresoever they lay, or were, within the realm of England.” The walls of the ancient college may be clearly traced, and a small portion still endures, comparatively uninjured. It is a gateway, surmounted by the arms of the Cobhams, luxuriantly overgrown with ivy, forming a fine example of picturesque antiquity. The present structure was erected pursuant to the will of Sir William Broke, Lord Cobham, who devised “all those edifices, ruined buildings, soil and ground, with the appurtenances which some time belonged to the late suppressed college for the use of the ‘new’ college.” By an act of the 39th of Elizabeth, the wardens of Rochester Bridge for the time being were made a body corporate, and declared perpetual presidents of the new college, the government of which they retain to this day.

The College.

The dependent village of Cobham is one of the neatest and most pleasant of the fair villages of Kent. There are, no doubt, many nobler and more perfect examples of the domestic architecture of “old” England than is supplied by Cobham Hall, but it would be difficult to direct attention to any that affords so rich a recompense at so small a cost; taking into account its genuine remains of antiquity, the magnificent works of Art that decorate its walls, its easy access from the metropolis, and the primitive character and surpassing beauty of the locality in which it is situated.

MOUNT EDGCUMBE.

WE cannot say in what month these details will be read, but they are written on a morning of May, in one of the loveliest spots of the fairest of our English shires: a mild and genial day of mid-spring—

“The soote season that bud and blome forth brings;”

when the apple orchards—prides of Devon—are in full blossom; the hawthorns have donned their snow-white draperies; the gorse its garment of gold; and every hedgerow is rich in the hundred hues of flowers that herald summer: while all the hill-slopes and meadows, “in verdure clad,” seem rejoicing over the prospective abundance that Nature promises to healthy toil. We have passed through the fifty-three miles that separate Exeter from Plymouth. It would be hard to find in any part of the world, in equal space, a road so lavishly endowed with gifts of the fertile and the beautiful. Part of the way by the open sea, then by estuaries, then by the banks of broad rivers, then by narrow and rapid streams, then under the shadows of tree-clad hills, green from base to summit, with frequent views of prosperous towns and happy villages, with venerable churches continually showing their tall spires above the tree-tops—in thoroughly rural England, far from the tall chimneys and dense atmosphere that betoken manufactures and their results—the railway runs through many scenes of surpassing loveliness, any one of which might tempt the traveller who is in search of either health or pleasure, with assurance of an ample supply of both.

The Great Western conveys us from Paddington to Exeter. We leave Exeter by the South Devon Railway (proverbially well managed, in all respects): it may take us to Penzance; but its great station is midway, at Plymouth, where has been recently erected for the especial accommodation of railway travellers and tourists, an admirable hotel (the Duke of Cornwall—there is none more comfortable in the kingdom).[11] Here we arrest the tourist, in order to visit the promontory of Mount Edgcumbe, that occupies one side of the famous harbour.

First, however, let us glance at the several points of interest that claim our attention en route. Leaving Exeter and its many attractions other than its renowned Cathedral, we first reach the marine village of Starcross, opposite to which are old Topsham (full of memories of our own boyhood, when “a stranger yet to pain”), and young Exmouth; stately villas and pretty cottages occupy slopes of the hill range. Then, at Dawlish, a graceful village, we front the sea, and pass some singular rocks of red sandstone, that stand like sentinels along the shore—and here, it may be well to note, some extraordinary inroads upon the sea-wall of the railway have lately been made by the ocean—Teignmouth and Shaldon come next, towns on both sides of the river Teign, connected by a narrow wooden bridge more than a quarter of a mile in length. We next arrive at Newton Junction, where a railway branch conducts to Torquay and Dartmouth; soon afterwards Totnes is reached, an old town on the Dart, one of the most beautiful of all the rivers in Devonshire, whence a steamboat issues daily to visit Dartmouth. Here we have left the sea, and have only in view rich pasture land—ever green, the hills tree-clad to their topmost heights. Passing Brent and Kingsbridge Stations, Ivy Bridge next comes in sight, a deep dell, over which a viaduct passes: a dell of singular beauty, one of the finest in all Devonshire. Soon we pass Cornwood and Plympton,—the latter famous as the birthplace of Sir Joshua Reynolds,—and, skirting the Plym, enter Plymouth.

The eye is at once arrested by a sylvan spot, running out into the sea, beyond the docks, and their manifold adjuncts; a mass of greenery, unbroken except by trees of varied foliage, that rise continually in groups, from all parts of the promontory that, thus seen, seems an island.

The admiral of the “Invincible” Armada had taste, at least, in fixing upon Mount Edgcumbe as his dwelling-place, when settled in the country he was “about” to conquer. God’s providence gave the invader a different locality; and the beautiful domain continues to be, as it was then, the home of the family of the Edgcumbes, now earls of “that ilk.”

Mount Edgcumbe is in Cornwall; but until recently it was a part of Devonshire; the Act of Parliament that removed it from one county to the other dating no further back than 1854. But Acts of Parliament have done other wonders in this district, for it was only in 1824 that an act was passed giving to the town of “Plymouth Dock,”—or, as it was then generally called, “Dock,”—the new and more pretentious name which it now holds of Devonport. The “Mount” is about half a mile across the bay which divides it from the now “united” towns of Devonport, Stonehouse, and Plymouth, which, together, contain a population of 150,000 “souls.” From any of the adjacent heights, especially the Hoe at Plymouth, we obtain a glorious view of the road-stead—fortified everywhere. In mid-distance is seen the Breakwater, one of the marvels of engineering art; and far off, yet within view, the famous lighthouse—the Eddystone, some fourteen miles from the nearest shore. Between these objects and the port are, at all times, many ships of the navy: they rule the waves of ocean in the seas that encircle earth; and Plymouth will be especially glorified when the triumphs of British sailors, from the admiral to the able seaman, supply subjects of discourse.

The Breakwater, one of the most gigantic works in the kingdom, lies in Plymouth Sound, where it forms a line between Bovisand Bay on the east, and Cawsand Bay on the west. It is about three miles from Plymouth, and is a mile in length. In form it is a straight line, with a kant or arm at each end, branching off towards the shore. At its eastern end a clear passage between it and the Bovisand shore of about a mile in width is left for ships, while at the western end the passage is about a mile and a half in width. The idea of the Breakwater originated with Earl St. Vincent in 1806, and Mr. Rennie and Mr. Whidbey surveyed the Sound for the purpose. In 1811 the plan was decided upon. The first stone was deposited on the birthday of the Prince Regent (afterwards George IV.), 1812. In 1817, and again in 1824, much damage was done to the progressing work. The quantity of stone used in its formation is estimated at about four millions of tons, exclusive of about two millions and a half of tons of granite and other stones used for paving, facings, &c. At the east end is a beacon, and at the west end a lighthouse 60 feet high. The spirited engraving of this gigantic undertaking, which we here give, is taken from Mr. Jewitt’s recently published “History of Plymouth,” where it forms one of many illustrations. The view, as will be seen, is a kind of bird’s-eye, and shows the form of the Breakwater, with its new central fort and its lighthouse and beacon.

Plymouth Breakwater.

The Eddystone Lighthouse, in the English Channel, is fourteen miles from Plymouth, from which town its light is distinctly visible under favourable atmospheric circumstances. It is erected on one of the Eddystone rocks, probably so called from the eddies, or whirls, which surround them. The rocks themselves are completely covered at high tide. The first attempt to erect a lighthouse on these rocks was made by Mr. Winstanley in 1696. This was completed in about four years, but was washed away in a hurricane. In 1706 a new lighthouse, for which an Act of Parliament had been passed, was begun to be erected by Mr. John Rudyerd, silk mercer, of London, who was of the famous family of Rudyerd, of Rudyerd, in the county of Stafford, and a man of considerable engineering and architectural skill. He, wishing to profit by experience, determined that as the former lighthouse had been angular, his should be round, and that as it was mainly of stone his should be of wood. In 1709 Rudyerd’s lighthouse was completed, and gave promise of being a great success. Years passed on, storms rose, the waves dashed over and around it wildly, but it remained firm and unshaken even through the dreadful tempest of 1744. What wind and water could not do, was, however, soon after fearfully accomplished by fire—the lighthouse being burned down in 1755. Immediately after this Mr. Smeaton undertook the task of erecting a new lighthouse of stone. This, the present Eddystone Lighthouse, was commenced in 1756 and completed in 1759. In construction it is the most complete example of architectural and engineering skill. The lower part is solid throughout, being literally as firm as the rock itself, on which it is immovably and permanently fixed. The stones are all dovetailed together, so that, in reality, it becomes but one stone throughout. In the upper portion, which is equally strong, the rooms and staircase take up the hollow centre. The lantern is octagonal. This building, which has given to the name of Smeaton an imperishable fame, bears on its granite cornice the truly appropriate inscription:—“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Psalm cxxvii. 1;” and over the lantern, “24th August, 1759. Laus Deo.” Of this we give an engraving on our initial letter on page 54.

But we have a theme that demands all the space we can give—Mount Edgcumbe, and that other seat of the ancient family, Cothele.

For Mount Edgcumbe art has done little; but it was here unnecessary for art to do much: like some women, whose charms of expression and perfect “loveliness” do not seem to require beauty, this delicious peninsula has been so richly gifted by Nature, that, perhaps, efforts to enhance its attractions might have lessened instead of augmenting them. Hill and dell, heights and hollows, pasture slopes and rugged hillocks, succeed each other with a delicious harmony we have rarely seen elsewhere. On one side of the bay are the three busy towns, active with energetic life; on another are the cultivated hill-sides of productive Devon; on another is the open sea, with the two objects we have noted—the Breakwater and the marvellous Eddystone. Everywhere Nature has had its own sweet will; even the laurel hedges have risen thirty feet in height; the lime trees grow as if they had never been trimmed; while the slopes, from the hill-heights to the sea-rocks, appear as sheen as if the scythe had been perpetually smoothing them. Here and there, pretty and pleasant shelters have been provided for visitors who throng hither for health and relaxation;[12] “look out” seats are provided on many of the hill-tops; and the deer and the rabbits have free pasturage in the noble Park that occupies a space of many hundred acres between the harbour and the sea. Nor may we forget the “defences” of the peninsula: the battery that would here, as elsewhere, “keep the foreigner from fooling us,” and that battery called “the Salute,” in which the huge “Armstrongs” are hidden, but where may be seen, by all on-lookers, twenty-one mounted cannon—“prizes” from ships of “the enemy” taken during the war with France.

Mount Edgcumbe, from Stonehouse Pier.

All, therefore, is not left to Nature. Nor must we forget the gardens: prettily laid out; enriched by rare trees, with vases and statues judiciously intermixed; and, especially, a grove of orange trees, with several summer-houses in pleasant nooks, where cedars, magnolias, cork trees, and other trees, supply shade and shelter from rain and sun. Art has here been aiding Nature, but its influence is felt rather than seen; those to whom the “grounds” owe much seem to have been ever mindful that their profuse and natural luxuriance needed few checks of the pruner and trainer. The name of one of these benefactors is recorded—a votive urn contains a tablet to the memory of that countess “whose taste embellished these retreats, herself their brightest ornament”—Countess Sophia, who could not have found on earth a home more lovely than that which, in 1806, she was called to leave for one still more perfect and more beautiful.

The great charm of Mount Edgcumbe, however, consists in the five-mile drive through the Park, along a road that everywhere skirts the harbour or the sea. It is perpetual hill and dell; a mimic ruin, intended as a view tower, and answering its purpose well, is the only object remarkable on the higher grounds, if we except the church—Maker Church—neither venerable nor picturesque, but containing many interesting memorials of the Edgcumbe family;[13] but down in the dales (in nearly all of them) are the pretty “lodges,” where the keepers and gardeners reside, and where simple “refreshments” of milk and hot water are provided for the crowds who are weekly visitors to the domain. One of these we have pictured on page 64.

Lady Emma’s cottage—Lady Emma being the first Countess of Mount Edgcumbe, wife of George, first Baron and Earl of that title—is charmingly situated in one of the most lovely of the dells of this domain, surrounded by soft grassy turf, and overhung by lofty trees; the cottage itself is completely embosomed in creeping plants, and has a rustic verandah exquisitely decorated with fir-cones and other natural productions, so disposed as to give considerable richness to the effect of the building. The little valley in which it stands, hollowed out with great regularity by Nature, and sloping gently down towards the sea, is one of the sweetest spots on the whole estate. The footway winds round the upper part of the valley, and at the head of the dell is a spacious alcove composed of Gothic fragments, called the “Ruined Chapel,” from which a glorious view is obtained.

In the grounds the most famous points for the attraction of visitors are “Thomson’s Seat;” the “Temple of Milton;” a recess called the “Amphitheatre;” a charming alcove, the “White Seat,” which commands a splendid prospect; “the Arch,” which overlooks the Sound; and the “zig-zag walks,” which lead down along the cliffs and through the woods, and are the favourite resorts of visitors.

The Mansion.

The gardens are three in number, and called respectively the “Italian,” the “French,” and the “English” gardens, in each of which the special characteristics of planting and arrangement of those countries are carried out—the conservatories, fountains, orangeries, terraces, etc., being, in each instance, built in accordance with the tastes of the three kingdoms.

Indeed, it is difficult to convey an idea of the grandeur, beauty, and interest of the views from every portion of the Park; they are perpetually varied as the eye turns from sea to shore, and from shore to sea; each one of them enhanced by ships at anchor or in full sail; while boats of all forms and sizes are continually passing to and fro. One of the most prominent objects from the park is Drake’s Island; an island in mid-channel between Plymouth and Mount Edgcumbe; it appears on the map, however, as St. Nicholas Island, its original name, but it has, in later times, been occasionally called Drake’s Island, after the great admiral, Sir Francis Drake—one of the many sea-heroes of whom Plymouth is justly proud. This island is connected with the shore at Mount Edgcumbe by a submarine ridge of rocks, called the “Bridge,” which renders the passage, on that side, dangerous to ships of even moderate burthen. On the island was formerly an ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Michael, which was converted in the fifteenth century into a bulwark. The island contains about three acres of land, and is strongly fortified.

We turn our backs on the Breakwater and distant Eddystone, to mark the steamer passing under the most remarkable effort of engineering skill in England—one of the legacies of Brunel—the “Albert Bridge” that crosses the Tamar from Devonshire into Cornwall; and long to visit (which we may easily do, for steam-boats run daily up it in summer) the beautiful river Tamar and its grand tributary, the Tavy. A drive of a mile, and before us is a continuation of the promontory, still charming; and a little farther on, but across the river Lynher—and adjacent to the ancient borough of St. Germans, with its venerable church, once the cathedral of the See of Cornwall—is Port Eliot, the residence of the noble family of Eliot, Earls of St. Germans. In a word, a hundred points of deep and exciting interest, picturesquely beautiful and historically interesting, may be seen and “taken note of,” from the several points to which a drive through the Park conducts.

We give an engraving of the mansion. Parts of it are as old as the reign of Henry VIII., but its outward signs of remote age are few; it seems built for comfort; it is thoroughly a domestic house; the rooms are neither large, lofty, nor stately; but all of them are made to live in—so many parts of a home. We may except the Great Hall, however; that is “grand.” There is a minstrels’ gallery, and it is often used for music. The house is square in general form, and originally had a circular tower at each angle; these, however, have been rebuilt of an octagonal form, and additions have been carried in different directions. The front faces down a grassy slope to the sea at Cremill, and thus a charming prospect is always before its windows; the rooms are full of family and historic portraits: some of them by the great old masters, many by Sir Joshua Reynolds, “dear Knight of Plympton,” while ten or twelve Vanderveldes grace the several apartments. Of these some are stated to have been painted by the artist, Vandervelde himself, at Mount Edgcumbe. Of one, which formed the subject of correspondence between Sir Richard Edgcumbe and the artist, the original and amended sketches hang beside the picture. The portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds are of individuals of three generations, and those by Lely are in his best style. Among the national pictures are full-length and other portraits of Charles I., Charles II., James II., Prince Rupert, William III., the Duke of Monmouth, and others.

It is needless to add that delicious views are obtained from the windows of all the leading chambers, not only on the upper but on the ground floors, as well as from the several terraces by which the dwelling is, on all sides, environed—occupying as it does an elevation on the side of one of the hill slopes.

Before we visit Cothele—the other mansion of the Mount-Edgcumbes—we give some account of the ancient and long-honoured family, who have been their lords for many hundred years.

The family of Edgcumbe, or Edgcomb, is one of the most ancient and venerable in the county of Devon, the name being derived from their original possession of Eggescomb, Egecomb, or Edgcombe (now called Lower Edgcumbe), in the parish of Milton Abbots, in that county. From this family and this place, the noble family of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe is descended as a younger branch.

In 1292 Richard Edgcumbe was Lord of Edgcumbe, in Milton Abbots, and he was direct ancestor, both of the present representative of the main line, who is twentieth in direct lineal descent, and of the present ennobled family, as well as of the branches settled in Kent and elsewhere.

In the reign of Edward III., William de Eggescombe, or Edgcombe, second son of the House of Edgcumbe, having married Hilaria, sole daughter and heiress of William de Cothele, of Cothele, or Coteel, in the parish of Calstock, in Cornwall, a fine old Cornish family, became possessed of Cothele and the other estates, and removed into Cornwall. Here, at Cothele, he and his descendants resided for several generations.

Richard Edgcumbe, great grandson of William de Edgcumbe and Hilaria de Cothele, is said to have built the greater part of the grand old residence of Cothele as it remains at the present day: of this singular mansion we shall furnish some details. At Bosworth Richard Edgcumbe received the honour of knighthood from his victorious leader, Henry VII., was made comptroller of his household, and one of his Privy Council, and had the castle and lordship of Totnes, in Devonshire—forfeited to the crown on the attainder of John Lord Zouch for high treason—conferred upon him by that monarch, with many other honours and dignities, and large extents of land, including those of Sir Henry Bodrugan, who had likewise been attainted for high treason. He also held, as he had previously done, the offices of Recorder, and Constable of the castle of Launceston, and Constable of Hertford, &c. In 1488 Sir Richard was sent into Ireland, as Lord Deputy, by his royal master, to take the oaths of allegiance of the Irish people, embarking at Mounts Bay in the Anne of Fowey, and attended by other ships, and a retinue of five hundred men. He died in 1489, at Morlaix, while holding the appointment of ambassador to France. He married Joan, daughter of Thomas Tremaine of Collacombe, by whom he had issue.

Lady Emma’s Cottage.

Of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, Fuller tells a romantic story. He says he was “memorable in his generation for being zealous in the cause of Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII. He was, in the time of Richard III., so hotly pursued, and narrowly searched for, that he was forced to hide himself in his wood, at his house, in Cuttail, in Cornwall. Here extremity taught him a suddain policy, to put a stone in his capp and tumble the same into the water, whilst these rangers were fast at his heels, who, looking down after the noise, and seeing the cap swimming therein, supposed that hee had desperately drowned himself, and deluded by this honest fraud, gave over their further pursuit, leaving him at liberty to shift over into Brittany. Nor was his gratitude less than his ingenuity, who, in remembranse of his delivery, after his return built a chappel (which still remains) in the plase where he lurked, and lived in great repute with prince and people.” After thus cleverly misleading his pursuers, Richard Edgcumbe crossed the Channel in a small ship, to the Earl of Richmond, in Brittany, with whom he afterwards returned to England, and was engaged in the battle of Bosworth Field, in Leicestershire, where King Richard was killed.

In the Gardens.

His son, Piers Edgcumbe, was Sheriff of the county of Devon, 9th, 10th, and 13th Henry VII. and 2nd Henry VIII. “At the creation of Prince Arthur he was one of the twenty individuals who were made Knights of the Cross of St. Andrew.” He, with others, was “appointed to review and array all men at arms, archers, and others, who were to accompany Sir Thomas D’Arcy in his expedition against the Moors and infidels.” He was one of the expedition into France, 5th Henry VIII., and for his distinguished gallantry at the sieges of Tournay and Thurovenne, and at the battle of Spurs, he was created a knight-banneret. Sir Piers Edgcumbe was married twice: first to the daughter and heiress of Stephen Durnford, by his wife the heiress of Rame; and, second, to Katherine, daughter of Sir John St. John, and widow of Sir Griffith Ap Rys, by whom he had no issue. By the first of these marriages, Sir Piers Edgcumbe acquired the manors and estates of the Durnfords, including that of West Stonehouse (now Mount Edgcumbe). He had issue by her, three sons, Richard, John, and James, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Jane, and Agnes (or Anne). Sir Piers Edgcumbe died in 1539, and was succeeded as heir by his eldest son, Richard Edgcumbe, who was knighted in 1536.

This Sir Richard Edgcumbe built the present family mansion, on a part of the estate which his father had acquired by marriage with the heiress of the Durnfords (who had inherited it from the ancient family of Stonehouse or Stenhouse), and gave to it the name of “Mount Edgcumbe.” He was Sheriff of Devon 35th Henry VIII. and 1st Queen Mary. He married first a daughter of Sir John Arundel, by whom he had no issue; and, second, Winifred Essex, and by her had, besides other issue, a son, Piers, or Peter, who succeeded him. Sir Richard Edgcumbe, who kept up a fine establishment, and at one time entertained at Mount Edgcumbe the English, Spanish, and Netherlands admirals, died in 1561. Piers (or Peter) Edgcumbe, who was member of Parliament, and was also Sheriff of Devon 9th Elizabeth, married Margaret, daughter of Sir Andrew Lutterell, by whom he had five sons and four daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard.

Piers Edgcumbe died in 1607, and on his tomb his honours are thus set forth:—

“Lief Tenant to my Queen long Time
And often for my Shire and Knighte;
My merit did to Creddit clime,
Still bidinge in my Callinge righte;
By Loyalty my faith was tryede,
Peacefull I liv’d, hopeful I diede.”

His son, Sir Richard Edgcumbe, knighted by James I., was member of Parliament for Totnes, for Grampound, and for Bossiney; he married Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Coteele, or Cottle, of London, and by her, who died eighteen years before him, had issue, two sons, Piers and Richard, by the eldest of whom, Piers Edgcumbe, he was succeeded. This gentleman distinguished himself by his devotion to the royal cause; he “was a master of languages and sciences, a lover of the king and church, which he endeavoured to support in the time of the civil wars to the utmost of his power and fortune.” Sir Alexander Carew and Major Scawen, for holding connection with Piers Edgcumbe, who held a colonel’s commission in the king’s army, were beheaded. He married Mary, daughter of Sir John Glanvil, and died in 1660, being succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Richard Edgcumbe, who had been knighted during his father’s lifetime. He was also a member of Parliament. He married Anne Montague, daughter of Edward, Earl of Sandwich, by whom he had issue two sons, Piers, who died young and unmarried, and Richard; and six daughters. He died in 1688.

To this time, for several generations, it will have been noticed, the inheritors of the estate alternated, in name, between Piers (or Peter) and Richard. This succession of name was now broken by the death of Piers, the eldest son.

Richard Edgcumbe, soon after coming of age, was chosen M.P. for Cornwall, and continued to sit for various places until 1742. In 1716 and 1720 he was one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and in 1724 was Vice-Treasurer, and Paymaster of the Taxes, &c. In 1742 he was created Baron Edgcumbe of Mount Edgcumbe, and was afterwards made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, one of the Privy Council, and Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall. His lordship, by his wife Matilda, daughter of Sir Henry Furnese, had issue, three sons, Richard, Henry (who died an infant), and George; he died in 1758, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, Richard, second Baron Edgcumbe, member of Parliament for various places, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and afterwards appointed Comptroller of his Majesty’s Household. He was a man of great talent, and is thus spoken of by Horace Walpole in his “Royal and Noble Authors:”—“His lordship’s skill as a draughtsman is said to have been such as might entitle him to a place in the ‘Anecdotes of English Painting,’ ‘while the ease and harmony of his poetic compositions give him an authorised introduction here.’ ... ‘a man of fine parts, great knowledge, and original wit, who possessed a light and easy vein of poetry; who was calculated by nature to serve the public, and to charm society; but who unhappily was a man of pleasure, and left his gay associates a most affecting example how health, fame, ambition, and everything that may be laudable in principle or practice, are drawn into and absorbed by that most destructive of all whirlpools—gaming.’”

The Ruin, the Sound, Drake’s Island, &c.

His lordship, dying unmarried in 1761, was succeeded by his brother George as third baron. This nobleman, who had sat in several parliaments, and held various public offices (among them the Lord-Lieutenancy of Cornwall), and was Vice-Admiral of the Blue, married Emma, only daughter and heiress of John Gilbert, Archbishop of York, by whom he had issue an only son, who succeeded him. His lordship was, on the 17th February, 1781, created in addition to his title of Baron Edgcumbe, Viscount Mount Edgcumbe and Valletort; and in 1789 he was further advanced to the dignity of an earl, by the title of Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Dying in 1795, he was succeeded by his only son, Richard, as second earl.

The Salute Battery.

This nobleman, who also held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall, married Lady Sophia Hobart, daughter of John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire, and by her had issue, two sons, Ernest Augustus, and George, and two daughters. His lordship died in 1839, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Ernest Augustus, as third earl, who (born in 1797) was Aide-de-Camp to the Queen and Colonel of the Cornwall militia. He married, in 1831, Caroline Augusta, daughter of Rear-Admiral Charles Feilding, who still survives him, and is an extra Lady of the Bed-chamber to the Queen. By her his lordship had issue two sons: viz., William Henry and Charles Ernest, and two daughters, of whom Ernestine Emma Horatia is still living. The earl died in 1861, and was succeeded by his eldest son as fourth earl.

The present nobleman, William Henry Edgcumbe, fourth Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, Viscount Mount Edgcumbe and Valletort, and Baron Edgcumbe of Mount Edgcumbe, the noble owner of Mount Edgcumbe and of the large estates concentrated in the family, was born in 1832. He was educated at Harrow, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became B.A. in 1856, and sat as M.P. for the borough of Plymouth from 1859 to 1861, when, by the death of his father, he entered the Upper House. His lordship is an extra Lord of the Bed-chamber to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales; is Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd battalion and Captain Commandant of the 16th corps of Devon Rifle Volunteers; is a Special Deputy Warden of the Stannaries, &c., &c. He married in 1858 the Lady Katherine Elizabeth Hamilton, fourth daughter of the first Duke of Abercorn, and has by her issue one son, Piers Alexander Hamilton Edgcumbe Viscount Valletort (born 1865), and three daughters, Victoria Frederica Caroline, born 1859, Albertha Louisa Florence, born 1861, and Edith Hilaria, born 1862. His lordship is patron of five livings; viz., Dittisham and Beer Ferrers, in Devonshire; and Landrake, Rame, and Millbrook, in Cornwall. The arms of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe are—gules, on a bend ermines, cottised, or, three boars’ heads, argent. Crest—a boar, statant, argent, gorged with a leaf of oak, vert, fructed, or. Supporters—two greyhounds, argent, gutté de poix, and gorged with a collar, dovetailed, gules.

From the ancient mansion at Mount Edgcumbe we proceed to that which is still older and more venerable—

Cothele.—It is difficult to imagine a house continuing—and but little changed—to be inhabited by the same family, or, indeed, inhabited at all, during a period approaching three centuries; yet that is the case with Cothele, pride of the beautiful river Tamar, and one of the “gems” of Cornwall;[14] its gigantic oaks, and chestnuts are obviously so old; but it is requisite to examine the exterior, and especially the interior, to obtain conviction that the mansion dates from the reign of the seventh Henry; while its present lord is the lineal representative of the knight who built it—Sir Richard Edgcumbe—whose house it is we see, nearly as he left it:[15] but, also, we may examine the armour he wore, for it still hangs in this hall; the table at which he feasted (the worm of time only has touched it); the chairs on which he and his dame sat, the very bed on which they slept, while the tapestry, woven by fair hands that have been dust for three centuries, still cover the old walls. Charles I. certainly slept in one of these rooms, and it demands no great stretch of imagination to believe that the illustrious Sir Walter Raleigh was often its honoured guest. We may have been seated in the very chair in which the great knight recounted his adventurous exploits against the hated Spaniards under his cousin’s roof-tree. Memories haunt every room; every hole and corner, so to speak, has a tale to tell of the long past.

The house is one of the finest remaining examples of the period to which it belongs, and, with Haddon Hall, in Derbyshire, which it closely resembles in general plan and in some of its details, is one of the best existing specimens of mediæval domestic architecture in England. Although, doubtless, the greater part of the building was erected by Sir Richard Edgcumbe, it is evident that the whole was not built by him, but that he added to, and enlarged the then family residence of the Cotheles, many portions of which exist at the present time.[16] The buildings surround two court-yards, or quadrangles, the entrance being surmounted by an embattled tower; the main buildings and large tower are also embattled.

The banqueting-hall is a noble apartment, 42 feet long by 22 feet wide. It has a remarkably fine timber roof, with intersecting arches in its compartments. At the upper end, to the left, the lord’s table stood beneath the bayed window, and opposite to it a doorway leads to the principal staircase. At the bottom of the hall are three doorways, one of which led to the great kitchen, and the other two to the buttery and the cellar. On the walls are suits of armour, helmets, breastplates, warders’ horns, gauntlets, matchlocks, cross-bows, shields, battle-axes, halberts, pikes, swords, pistols, gisarmes, petronels, and two-handed swords and spears that may have been

“Bathed in gore

On the plains of Azincourt.”

In the windows are the royal arms, the arms and impalements of Edgcumbe, Cothele, Holland, Tremaine, Trenchard, Durnford, Rame, Cotterell, Raleigh (for Sir Walter Raleigh’s grandmother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cothele), Trevanion (Sir William Trevanion married another daughter of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, and fought by his side at Bosworth Field, and accompanied him in his pursuit of the mutual enemy, Sir Henry Bodrugan), Carew, of Anthony (of the family of Carew the historian), St. Maur, Courtenay, Bigbury, Fitzwalter, &c.

The dining-room is a charming tapestried apartment, with mullioned windows and a fine old fire-place. The tapestry is highly interesting, one of the subjects being the story of Eurydice, another Diana and Apollo, and the others rural scenes, equestrian figures, &c.

Adjoining the dining-room is an ante-room of surpassing interest. “The tapestry in this room represents the Sciences, and might be called the school of Athens, from the similarity of the subject to the celebrated picture of Raphael.” In this room, as in others, has been collected together a fine assemblage of old earthenware and other interesting matters relating to the life of the inmates in times of old.

The chapel, which is in the corner of the court-yard, contains a pretty open-work oak screen, and an arched roof at the intersections of which are carved bosses. The bowl of the original font is preserved. In the east window, in stained glass, are considerable portions of full-length figures, probably of saints, but the names do not appear, while in the upper light is represented the Annunciation. The angel is red with green wings, and on a label, in black letter, the words “Ave Maria gracia plena, D̄ns tecum.” The Virgin is on the other side, near a building resembling a church, with a label also, on which once was “Ecce ancilla D̄ni; fiat ̄mi s̄cdm verbū-tuū.” In the lower compartment of the window will be noticed three shields of arms: the first being Edgcumbe, quartering Tremaine (or Trenchard); the second, first, and fourth Edgcumbe, second Holland, third Tremaine, impaling first and fourth Durnford, second Fitzwalter, and third, now blank but probably originally containing Bigbury; and the third which contained Edgcumbe and several quarterings, much injured. In the south window are two female saints, St. Ann and St. Katherine. “An ancient altar-piece has the date 1589, and in the centre the adoration of the Magi; while on one door is the portrait of a man with ‘æt suæ 38,’ and on the other of a female, with ‘æt suæ 28,’ and on each door a shield with or, an arrow, sable.” The chapel is entered from the dining-room as well as from the court-yard and domestic offices. It has a small bell turret.

The bed-rooms—“the white room,” the “red room,” the “best room,” “King Charles’s room,” and “Queen Anne’s room”—are all hung with fine tapestry, and furnished in a style strictly in keeping with the place itself. The ceiling of the first of these is of geometric design. The carved furniture in these rooms is of the most interesting character, and among the decorations are many shields of arms of the Edgcumbes and their alliances. The tapestry is of the finest character, the furniture grand as old furniture well can be, the hangings rich in material and hoary with age, and the ornaments of the most veritable vertu character—each room in this grand old mansion offers subject-matter enough for a separate volume.

The Mansion.

The drawing-room is also a fine tapestried apartment, furnished with massive ebony chairs, ebony sofa, and ebony carved cabinet, and all the appliances en suite. The kitchen and the other domestic offices are each and all of the most interesting character, and convey to the mind a vivid picture of the life of the inmates in days gone by. It is impossible, indeed, to conceive anything better than Cothele as an illustration of the home-life of our mediæval ancestors; for the building, the furniture, and the appliances, as they are to-day, so were they three hundred years ago. As it was in the days of Henry VII., so it is in those of Queen Victoria; and so, thanks to the preserving spirit of the Edgcumbes, it is likely to remain for centuries to come.

On some of the previous pages mention is made of Sir Richard Edgcumbe’s escape from his pursuers, and of his founding a chapel on the spot of his deliverance. This little chapel still stands to mark the spot, and to bring back to the mind the circumstances of his escape, and of the discomfiture of his pursuers. The chapel is built on the edge of the rock overlooking the water, and from the east window the view is wonderfully grand. In this east window is a figure of St. George in the centre, with the Annunciation and the Crucifixion on either side. It also bears the arms of Edgcumbe and Tremaine. In the other windows are also figures in stained glass, and on the altar is a triptych. Among other interesting features in this chapel—and they are many—is a fac-simile of the ancient tomb of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, at Morlaix.

The grounds are charmingly wild, yet graceful. Nature is in a great degree left to have her own way; the trees are of magnificent size (one of them indeed measures 28 feet in girth), ferns and wild flowers grow in rich luxuriance: every now and then glimpses are obtained of the beautiful river, and, on the opposite side, of the hill-steeps and thick woods of Devonshire. A pretty landing-place for boats is among the most picturesque points in the landscape; a lesser river here flows into the Tamar; a waterfall adds to the interest of the scene; and a neat little inn, close to the bank, gives refreshment to the wayfarer; above all its attractions is to be counted this—it is distant a dozen miles from a railway, and the shrill whistle never breaks the harmony of the song-birds, who “cannot help but sing” in every bush, brake, and tree of the demesne. The scenery on the river in the neighbourhood of Cothele is extremely beautiful, and in many places thickly overhung by skirting woods. Danescombe, a deep hollow in the woods, is a charming spot, as are the Morwell rocks, and many other places.

We have directed attention to but one of a hundred attractions in Devonshire and Cornwall: Devonshire is rich in the picturesque at all seasons; and the wild grandeur of the Cornish coast has for centuries been a theme of special laudation. Here and there, no doubt, other countries may supply us with finer examples of the sublime and beautiful in scenery; but they are to be reached only by sacrifices, such as the Home Tourist is not called upon to make: our own Islands have been gifted by God with so much that is refreshing as well as exciting to the eye and mind, that he or she must be fastidious indeed who fails to be content with the beauties that Nature presents so “near at hand”—accessible at comparatively easy cost of time, toil, and money.

The Landing Place.

Between Exeter and Plymouth there may be a tour for every day of a month.

Among the more delightful trips, where all is so beautiful, and where it is impossible to turn in any direction without finding some delightful place or some interesting object, may be named as especially within the reach of visitors, those to Ivy Bridge, with its abundant charms of hill, dell, wood, and river; to Saltram, the seat of the Earl of Morley, on the banks of the Laira; to the Beacon and moors of Brent; to the picturesque and pleasant dingles and combs of Cornwood; to Plympton, with its historic sites and its pleasant associations; to Bickleigh and its poetical vale; to Dartmoor, with its gloomy waste, its wild and romantic “breaks” of scenery, and its endless antiquities; and to scores of other delicious spots. The trip up the river Tamar to the Weir-head is one which ought to be taken by every visitor, embracing, as it does, besides hundreds of other points of interest, the dockyards, gun-wharf, Keyham steam-yard, Mount Edgcumbe, Torpoint, Thanckes, Gravesend House, the mouth of the sweet river Lynher, by which St. Germans is reached; Saltash, whose women are proverbial for their dexterity and strength in aquatic exercises, and who often carry off regatta prizes; St. Budeaux, with its conspicuous church; the junction of the Tavy with the Tamar; Warleigh, Beer Ferris, and Maristow; Cargreen and Landulph, in whose churchyard Theodore Palæologus, the last male descendant of the Christian emperors of Greece, rests in peace; Pentillie Castle, with its romantic love stories and tales of change of fortune; Cothele, of which we have spoken; Calstock, with its fine old church situated on a promontory; Harewood House, the seat of the Trelawneys, and the scene, in Mason’s Elfrida, of the love of Ethelwold and of the misfortunes consequent on his marriage with the daughter of Ordgar; and the sublime and beautiful Morwell Rock.

Staddon Heights, Mount Batten, Penlee Point, Hooe, and many other places, are within short distances of the Hoe, at Plymouth, and can be easily reached. Trematon Castle and St. John’s are also near at hand, and pleasure trips are frequently made in steam-boats round the Eddystone.

For those who make a longer stay in South Devon, visits may well be made to Tavistock, to Totnes, to Berry Pomeroy Castle, to Torquay, with a long et cetera.[17] Besides the trip up the Tamar, there are other rivers in South Devon whose charms are of a totally different, but perhaps even more exquisitely beautiful character. Thus the Dart, the Lynher, the Plym, the Yealm, the Erme, and the Tavy, all present attractions to the tourist.

It cannot fail to augment the enjoyment of those who visit this beautiful county—the fairest, the brightest, and the “greenest” of all our English shires—to recall the many “worthies” to whom Devonshire and Cornwall have given birth; men renowned in art, in science, and in letters: and the gallant men, the “adventurers,” who carried the flag of England into every country of the world, braving the battle and the breeze in all the seas that surround earth in the four quarters of the globe. It is a long list—the names of Drake, of Raleigh, and of Davy; of Reynolds, Northcote, Haydon, and Eastlake; of Carew, of Hawkins, and of Gilbert; of Kitto, of Bryant, and of Hawker, being not a tithe of the eminent men to which this district has given birth—of whom the western shires are rightly and justly proud.

Shame be to those who seek in other lands the enjoyment they may find so abundantly at home—who talk freely of the graces and grandeurs of far-off countries, and do not blush to acknowledge entire ignorance of those that bless and beautify their own.

England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, are, each and all, rich in “the picturesque;” to the artist and art-lover they present attractions second to none they will find in any country of the Continent: that is the truest “patriotism,” which inculcates, as a first duty, a full appreciation of

“Our own, our native land!”

ALNWICK CASTLE.[18]

WITH the single exception of Royal Windsor, Alnwick Castle is second to none of the mediæval British strongholds which, in our own times, combine the characteristics of the early fortress and the modern palace. With its magnificent architectural features, all of them deeply impressed with the attributes of a baronial castle of the olden time, and placed in the midst of that famous scene of long-continued strife, of daring deeds, and of summary retribution, the Northern Border, Alnwick may truly be said to be an historical monument, standing upon historic ground. The names of the great barons, in like manner, who have successively been lords of Alnwick, have been enrolled by English chroniclers among the foremost ranks of their countrymen, so that their own biographies, interwoven with the history of their renowned castle, are written in the annals of England. Then, on the other hand, while in an extraordinary degree rich as well in relics as in memories of the past, Alnwick still maintains the unclouded splendour of its ancient dignity in its present capacity as the residence of an existing ducal family. Thus, from whatever point of view it may be regarded, Alnwick Castle must be esteemed as one of the finest and most interesting of our national edifices, and it also always will establish its claim to a foremost place among “the stately homes of England.”

When Nature declined to provide any one of her own emphatic boundary-lines, such as a mountain-chain or a broad and deep river, to determine the frontier which should divide England from Scotland, she left a very delicate and difficult international question to be adjusted by the rulers of the two adjacent realms, so long as this single island of Britain should be divided into two distinct, and by no means necessarily friendly, kingdoms. An artificial line of demarcation, accordingly, had to be drawn, and was drawn, which was supposed to be accepted and recognised both to the north and to the south of it. Here and there, as if to show in the clearest manner possible the unsatisfactory character of a frontier such as this, to a tract of country the ominous name of “Debateable Land” was assigned by common consent. On either side of the frontier-line, again, and including all the “Debateable Land,” the “Border” stretched far away to both the north and the south; and, throughout its whole extent, it formed a decidedly exceptional territory, in which there prevailed a system of wild laws that were administered after a still wilder fashion: hence, whatever may have been the state of things between England and Scotland, and between the two sovereigns and the two nations, along the Border there flourished a chronic local warfare, duly distinguished by gallant exploits, desperate enterprises, and barbarous devastation, with the occasional variety of an expedition of sufficient magnitude almost to constitute a regular campaign, or the formal investment, and perhaps the storm and sack, of some important fortified castle.[19]

The Borderers appear to have become so accustomed to this kind of life, that they looked upon it as their proper lot, and after a manner even regarded it with a kind of grim approval. Among them, doubtless, there were but too many who were thoroughly in earnest in their devotion to what may be styled the Border system—men

“Stout of heart and steady of hand,”

who, living in the constant expectation of some sudden assault, were both “good at need,” and ready and resolute at all times to take advantage to the utmost of every promising opportunity for successfully and profitably assaulting their hostile neighbours. In order to keep a check upon this predatory warfare, and to maintain something more than the semblance of a supreme constituted authority, certain warlike barons, intrusted with high powers as Lords Wardens, were established in fortified castles of great strength along the line of the Border, and in those northern districts of England which adjoined it. Of these early strongholds one of the proudest and the sternest was the Castle of Alnwick.

Plan of Alnwick Castle.

Distant from London, north by west, 313 miles (by railway), Alnwick, the county-town of Northumberland, is pleasantly situated on high ground, rising about 200 feet above the sea-level, on the south bank of the river Aln. From the name of this river, with the addition of wick, a place of human habitation, Alnwick, always pronounced by its native inhabitants “Annick,” is evidently derived.[20]

Alnwick Castle, from the River Aln.

Still remaining but little changed from what it was in times long passed away, while from the humblest of origins other towns have grown up and increased until they have attained to great magnitude and wealth and importance, Alnwick derives its interest from its early association with our national history—an association blended with the connection of the town with its castle, and with the great barons, the lords of that castle. The site of the castle and town of Alnwick is of a character which necessarily leads to the conclusion, that it must have been occupied both by a settlement and by some stronghold from a very remote period; and this opinion is confirmed by the presence of numerous relics in the immediate neighbourhood, that may be assigned without hesitation to ages anterior to the Roman settlement in Britain: the authentic history of Alnwick, however, cannot be carried back further than the era of the Norman Conquest, and even then for awhile more than a little of uncertainty overshadows the earliest pages of the chronicle. There exists no evidence to show that in the year 1066 any castle was standing at Alnwick; nor have we any knowledge of what lords may have held the high ground on the southern bank of the Aln during the Anglo-Saxon rule.

On Alnwick Moor, and in many places in the neighbourhood, are some remarkably interesting camps and other earth-works, and also some barrows, in which various relics have been discovered. In one of these was found a stone cist, containing a skeleton in the usual contracted position of Celtic interments; and in another, in a similar cist, was found a fine food-vessel, ornamented with a lozenge pattern. In other barrows Celtic remains, including cinerary urns, drinking-cups, food-vessels, flints, celts, and other implements of stone, bronze daggers, &c., have been found, and prove incontestably the early occupation of the site of Alnwick. In the neighbourhood, too, occur many of those curious remains of antiquity, sculptured stones, bearing circles and other rude and singular characters, which are supposed to be inscriptions.

It may be accepted as probable that the first Norman by whom this barony was held was Gilbert Tyson, standard-bearer of the Conqueror, the kind of personage who very naturally would be intrusted with the charge of a remote and turbulent northern district. His descendants continued to hold some estates under the lords of Alnwick in the reign of Edward III., but there is no foundation for the legend that the barony of Alnwick passed to Yvo de Vesci by his marriage with Alda, a granddaughter of Gilbert Tyson. Still, by whatever means he may have acquired possession, Yvo de Vesci was lord of Alnwick about the year 1096; and he also is the first Norman baron of this barony whose history, scanty as it is, rises above doubt and speculation. He died about the year 1134, leaving, without any male issue, an only daughter, Beatrix, his sole heiress.

Before we pass on to trace the fortunes of the descendants of Yvo de Vesci, a brief notice must be taken of a memorable incident which took place in the immediate neighbourhood of Alnwick before Yvo himself had become its lord. After the Norman Conquest many of the Anglo-Saxon nobles found a sympathizing refuge to the north of the Border, under the protection of Malcolm Caenmore, or “great head,” King of Scotland, whose queen was an Anglo-Saxon princess, being sister to Edgar Atheling. Malcolm, in his zeal for the fallen Anglo-Saxon dynasty, five times made incursions into Northumberland, laid waste the country far and wide with fire and sword, and carried away almost the entire adult population as slaves into Scotland. This devastating warfare was suspended in consequence of a treaty, during the concluding years of the reign of the Conqueror; but it broke out afresh after the succession of Rufus, and Malcolm, accompanied by Prince William, his eldest son, in person led an expedition as far south as Alnwick; and there, on the 13th of November, 1093, the king himself fell in an ambuscade, his son at the same time was mortally wounded, and the Scottish army was dispersed by Earl Robert de Mowbray, the governor of Bamborough Castle. The body of Malcolm, having rested about thirty years at Tynemouth, was removed and re-interred at Dunfermline by his son Alexander. There still remain two fragments of a rude memorial cross, which, from an early period, has marked the spot assigned by tradition to the scene of Malcolm’s discomfiture and death; and, in 1774, one of his descendants, Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland, erected on the same spot another cross, designed in accordance with the debased architectural taste of that period.

The Barbican.

The one circumstance connected with the career of Yvo de Vesci that has come down to us is the fact that he began to build the earliest parts of the existing castle of Alnwick. With the barony, the castle of Alnwick passed to Eustace Fitz-John by his marriage with Beatrix, the heiress of Yvo de Vesci. In the hands of this able baron, Alnwick Castle was “most strongly fortified:” he also founded the monastery of Alnwick, and in 1157 was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who, in honour of his mother, assumed the name of De Vesci. In the time of this baron, another King of Scotland found that the neighbourhood of Alnwick Castle was no place of safety. In the year 1174 William the Lion, while besieging the fortress of the De Vescis, was taken prisoner, and the large army under his command was completely routed, De Vesci himself taking an active part in the fierce struggle. His descendant, John De Vesci, who died in 1288, leaving no issue, founded and endowed Hulne Abbey; and he was the first baron of his house who was summoned by the king to the parliament by writ, his predecessors having been barons by tenure. William De Vesci III., one of the claimants of the Scottish crown, was born in 1245, and succeeded to the barony of Alnwick on the death of his brother. The last baron of Alnwick of his race, he died in 1297, without legitimate issue, having infeoffed the celebrated Anthony Bec, Bishop of Durham, with all his lands and his castle of Alnwick, to hold them in trust for an illegitimate son. But in 1309 the bishop sold the castle and barony of Alnwick to Henry de Percy; and this conveyance was confirmed by Edward II. in 1310.

Deriving, as it would seem, their memorable name from that district in Normandy in which from an early period, long before the Norman Conquest of England, their family had been established, the Percies were represented in the ranks of the Conqueror at Hastings by William de Percy, who assumed the additional name of Le Gernons, or Algernon, as a personal epithet denoting the mass of hair which he wore about his face. About 1166, or almost an exact century after the battle of Hastings, the wealth, dignities, and power of the Percies centred in an heiress who, perhaps in 1168, married Josceline de Louvain, second son of the Duke of Brabant, and half-brother to the second queen of Henry I. of England. A legend has been preserved, which relates that on her marriage with Josceline, Agnes de Percy stipulated that her husband, at his own option, should assume either the arms or the name of Percy; and it is added that the bridegroom elected to retain his own arms, the blue lion rampant of Brabant, while he assumed the paternal surname of his bride. This legend, however, must be regarded as the poetic offspring of a later age, since at the time of the marriage of Agnes de Percy armorial insignia had neither assumed any definite character, nor had any such insignia become hereditary.

The Prudhoe Tower and Chapel.

There is nothing to show that Josceline de Louvain ever bore the name of Percy; but it is certain that the surname of his mother was assumed and borne by the second son of Josceline’s marriage with the Percy heiress, Henry de Percy; and by his descendants and successors the same name was regularly borne. It was Sir Henry de Percy, third of the name, who in 1309, the second year of Edward II., when already he was possessed of vast wealth, and great power, became the first Lord of Alnwick of the House of Percy, by purchase from Bishop Anthony Bec. Having taken an active part in the wars with Scotland and otherwise distinguished himself among the foremost men of his time, Henry, first Baron Percy of Alnwick, died in 1315, and was buried at Fountains Abbey, to which institution he had been a munificent benefactor. One of the powerful barons who signed the memorable letter to Pope Boniface VIII., in which the peers of England refused to recognise or allow the interference of Papal authority with the independent sovereignty of this realm, he married Eleanor Fitz-Alan, daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundel, by whom he had two sons, and of these the elder, another Henry de Percy, succeeded his father as second Baron Percy of Alnwick, to whom was granted by Edward III. the castle and manor of Warkworth “for service in peace and war,” as appears from the original grant now in the Duke of Northumberland’s possession. This Lord Percy was interred at Alnwick Abbey, the only head of the family buried in Northumberland. The history of the lords of Alnwick from this period becomes so closely interwoven with the history of England, that it would be superfluous in such a sketch as the present to attempt to introduce even a slight outline of the career of each of those renowned barons; and, indeed, if it were desirable, it would not be possible here to find space for the very slightest outline of so comprehensive a subject. Accordingly, we now are content to give but little more than the succession of the Percies after they became lords of Alnwick.

Henry de Percy, eldest son of the first baron, succeeded his father as second Baron Percy of Alnwick; he died in 1352, leaving, by his wife Idonea de Clifford (whose magnificent monument, with its rich and splendid architectural canopy, unsurpassed in England, and also without a rival in its remarkable condition of preservation, is the pride of Beverley Minster), four sons, of whom the eldest, Henry, succeeded as third Baron Percy of Alnwick. This baron died in 1368; his eldest son, by Mary of Lancaster, Henry de Percy, sixth of his name and fourth baron, was created Earl of Northumberland by Richard II., and High Constable of England. This great noble fell a victim to the tyranny of Henry IV., at Bramham Moor, in 1409. He was thrice married: first to Elizabeth, heiress to the Earl of Angus, by whom he acquired the barony of Prudhoe; secondly to Margaret de Neville; and thirdly to Maud de Lucy, sister and heiress of Lord Lucy, widow of Gilbert de Umfraville, and mother of her second husband’s first wife: and by these alliances the barony of Prudhoe, with the estates of the Lucys and the castle and honour of Cockermouth, became annexed to the Percy earldom. Sir Henry de Percy, known by his surname of Hotspur as well in song as in history,—

“Who was sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride,”

the earl’s eldest son, was killed near Shrewsbury in 1403. At Trotton, in Sussex, a fine monumental brass commemorates Elizabeth de Mortimer, wife of Hotspur, and afterwards of Lord Camoys.

The Keep.

After several years the fortified honours and estates of the Percies were restored to Henry, the son of Hotspur, who thus became the second Earl of Northumberland. This great earl was killed, fighting under the red-rose banner, at St. Albans, in 1455; and was succeeded by his fourth surviving son, by his marriage with Eleanor de Neville, another Henry, who, with one of his brothers, fell at the disastrous rout of Towton, in 1461. Two other brothers of this earl died in arms in the Lancastrian cause; one of them, Sir Ralph de Percy, a few days before the final catastrophe at Hexham in 1464, was killed fighting bravely on Hedgeley Moor, where a cross was erected as a memorial of his valour and his fall: of this cross the shaft, adorned with the heraldic insignia of Percy and Lucy, is still standing. Under the third earl, who, by his marriage with Eleanor de Poynings, acquired the baronies of Poynings, Fitzpayne, and Bryan, the estates attached to the earldom reached their greatest territorial extent, and constituted a vast principality.

In 1469 the attainder of the third earl having been reversed, his only son, Henry, became the fourth earl; he was killed in a popular tumult in 1489, when his eldest son, by his marriage with Maud de Herbert, Henry Algernon, succeeded as fifth earl. Remarkable rather for an almost regal state and magnificence than for the warlike qualities that before his time had been hereditary in his house, he was the first Earl of Northumberland who did not fall in battle or otherwise suffer a violent death. He died in 1527, having married Catherine Spense, or Spencer. The Household Book of this earl, which has been published by Bishop Percy, is one of the most remarkable and characteristic documents that illustrate the personal history of the greatest English nobles in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His son, the sixth earl, a second Henry Algernon de Percy, the lover of Anne Boleyn in her earlier and really happier days, married Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, but in 1537 died without issue, when the grand Percy earldom became extinct.

Twenty years later, “in consideration of his noble descent, constancy, virtue, and valour in deeds of arms, and other shining qualifications,” of which last recommendations to royal favour the fact that he was a zealous Roman Catholic certainly was not the least influential, Thomas de Percy, eldest son of the second son of the fifth earl (Sir Thomas Percy), was created by Queen Mary, Baron Percy, and also restored to the earldom of Northumberland; but the tenure by which the restored earl was to hold his dignities and lands restricted the succession absolutely to the heirs male of his own body, and to those of his brother. This the seventh earl was executed, as a traitor, at York, in 1572, leaving no surviving son. Accordingly, his brother, Henry de Percy, became the eighth earl: he died in 1585, having been shot (it was said, but most doubtfully, by his own hand) while a prisoner in the Tower. The eldest son of this earl, by Catherine de Neville, Henry, succeeded as ninth earl: he was a learned, eccentric personage, commonly known as “the Wizard,” and died, after an imprisonment of fifteen years in the Tower, in 1632. He married Dorothy Devereux, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Algernon, one of the noblest of his race. This great earl died in 1668, having married, first, Anne Cecil, and, secondly, Elizabeth Howard. His successor, his only son (by his second marriage), Josceline de Percy, the eleventh and last earl of Northumberland of the direct lineage of the Percies, died in 1670, leaving, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Southampton, an only child, a daughter, Elizabeth de Percy, four years old at the time of her father’s death.

Here we pause, before we trace onwards the fortunes of the later lords of Alnwick, that we may direct our attention to the history of their grandest northern fortress-home, Alnwick Castle.

Norman Gateway in the Keep.

The plan of the castle, as it exists at the present time, is shown in our engraving; and it will be seen that five distinct periods in the architectural history are indicated by varieties of shading introduced into the outlines. The extreme extent of the walls from east to west slightly exceeds 1,000 feet; while that from north to south is somewhat less than 600 feet. The varied outline of the space enclosed within the walls, which in a great measure has been determined by the nature of the ground, in an infinite degree enhances the equally noble and picturesque aspect of the edifice. The figures in the plan refer to the various parts of the castle in the manner following:—1, is the Barbican; 2, the Gateway to the second Baly; 3, the Octagonal Towers; 4, the Norman Gateway; 5, the Grand Staircase; 6, the Guard Chamber; 7, the Principal Ante-Room; 8, the Library; 9, the Saloon; 10, the Drawing-Room; 11, the Dining Hall; 12, the Chapel; 13 and 14, State Bed-Rooms, 15, Boudoir of the Duchess; 16, Kitchen; 17, Estate Offices; 18, Laundry; 19, Guest-Hall; 20, Stables; 21, Riding-School; 22, West Garret; 23, Abbot’s Tower; 24, Falconer’s Tower; 25, Postern Tower; 26, Constable’s Tower; 27, Ravine Tower; 28, East Garret; 29, Warder’s Tower; 30, Auditor’s Tower; 31, Clock Tower; and 32, the Avener’s Tower. Thus, the open ground within the circumvallation, as will be seen by the plan, is divided into two irregular spaces, the outer and the inner Baly, the outer being toward the west. Occupying a central position is the Keep, a grand cluster of towers and curtain-walls, enclosing an open court-yard: of these towers, the new Prudhoe Tower, within which is the Library (No. 8), with its lofty banner-turret, is the most conspicuous. Running south, commencing with No. 13 and extending to No. 2, a new range of buildings connects the Keep with the early Percy gateway between the balies, and with the main southern curtain. In this direction, all the buildings, from No. 29 to No. 17, and from thence (with the exception of No. 31, which is one of the flanking towers of the main curtain) to No. 19 southward, and to No. 21 westward, are new, and they have been erected beyond and without the limits of the proper fortification. In like manner, the whole line of curtain-wall, from No. 24 to No. 25, is new. To the north of the Keep the ground falls somewhat rapidly in the direction of the river; from the bridge which here crosses the Aln, the view of The Castle, as its groups of towers and its far-extending walls rise proudly above the encircling woods, is particularly fine and impressive.

The principal approach and entrance to the castle are from the west. Here, to the westward of the original outer face of the fosse, stands the Barbican; an embattled outwork of equal strength and dignity, the work of the first of the Percies, about A.D. 1310. The rounded arch of the entrance gateway here is an example of a usage not very uncommon at the period which has just been specified, and always present in the works of Lord Henry de Perci. The Barbican, which covers an area of 55 feet in length by 32 feet in width, is a perfect example of the style of fortification that was held to be essential for defence against assault in mediæval warfare. One remarkable feature, which is repeated again and again in various parts of the castle, cannot fail at once to attract attention when approaching the Barbican; this is the array of tall figures representing armed warders of the fourteenth century, sculptured in stone, which surmount the parapet, and stand upon the merlons of the embattling, casting their long shadows upon the grey masonry.

The Armourer’s Tower.

Having entered the Barbican, passed under the sculptured Percy lion which keeps guard over the archway, and traversed the entrance tower, we find ourselves within the enclosure of the first or outer baly; here, turning to the left, we commence our survey of the castle within the lines of circumvallation. The curtain-wall, extending from the entrance northwards at a right angle to the Abbot’s Tower, and having midway a garret or wall-tower (No. 22 in plan) built upon it, is part of the old Norman work of the De Vescis, with evident tokens of important reparation a little before the middle of the fifteenth century, by the father of Hotspur, the sixth lord of Alnwick. The Armourer’s Tower (No. 23 in plan), which occupies the N.W. angle of the enceinte, is a noble piece of Edwardian architecture; it consists of a vaulted basement, with two stories above it, connected by a turret-stair: and its external massive effectiveness is greatly enhanced by the square turret at the N.W. angle of the tower, which rises boldly above the embattled parapet, having its own merlons crowned with weather-beaten sculptured warders. Now facing eastwards, and soon making a slight inclination towards the east, again we follow the line of the Norman curtain-walls, until we reach the new Falconer’s Tower (No. 24 in plan), which has been built on the site of the razed early Armourer’s and Falconer’s Towers; the original curtain apparently extended in a direct line from No. 24 to the Keep. Passing onwards along the new curtain-wall due east from No. 24, we follow the line of this wall as it turns towards the south, and at No. 25 in the plan brings us to the Postern Tower, another massive relic of the first Lord Percy, placed at the base of the eminence upon which the Keep stands; this tower protects a postern or sally-port, and it has a curious staircase in the thickness of its walls: it is now used as a museum for Roman and British antiquities. Advancing still further eastwards, but with an inclination to the north, and again following the course of De Vesci’s curtain, we reach the Constable’s Tower (No. 26 in plan), of Edwardian architecture, to which there are three external entrances, one in each floor: one chamber in this tower is used as an armoury. Again, as we follow the guidance of the curtain-wall towards the S.E., we have before us the Norman masonry, with traces of Edwardian, or first Percy, reparation. Here, about midway between Nos. 26 and 27 of the plan, an embattled projection from the line of the wall has been entitled “Hotspur’s Chair,” and to the east of this projection a gap in the curtain is filled up with eighteenth-century masonry; this gap a not very well-supported tradition assigns to a fierce assault by some Scots, who are said to have been so far successful as to beat down this portion of the castle-wall, after which exploit the tradition adds that the assailants were cut off to a man by the garrison. This tower, which is called both the Ravine Tower and the Record Tower (No. 27 of plan), stands at the easternmost extremity of the castle; with Edwardian remains in its walls, it was for the most part rebuilt in the last century: on the ground-floor is the muniment-room, in which the records are kept. From this point our course inclines in a south-westerly direction, the curtain being eighteenth-century work, until again, at No. 28 in the plan, we welcome traces of the early masonry: here another garret occurs, with the junction of the Norman and modern masonry; then yet another succeeds, as once more we follow an eighteenth-century wall until we reach the new Lion or Garden Gatehouse, No. 29 in the plan, through which a road leads to Barneyside, where are situated the extensive and beautiful gardens of the castle.

On the Barbican.

From within this gateway, which is flanked by two octagonal towers, one of them—the Warder’s Tower—larger and loftier than the other, the curtain-wall of the first Lord Percy’s work leads in a direct line nearly due west; we follow the course of this wall, we pass through the middle gate-house, erected by the first of the Percies, which both separates and connects the inner and the outer baly; again, on our left, we have early Norman masonry in the curtain, and then we reach the Auditor’s Tower (No. 30 in plan), another relic of the first Lord Percy: here was held the court of the lord of the barony; here now is the private Library of the Duke; and here also is the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, collected by Duke Algernon, the last munificent restorer of Alnwick. Still following the line of the curtain, we reach the Clock Tower. From this tower, the curtain, built in the last century, leads in a northerly direction to the entrance gateway connected with the Barbican, to which, thus completing our entire circuit, we now return, having passed, since leaving the Clock Tower, the Avener’s Tower or Garner (No. 32 of plan), like the adjoining curtain, a modern work.

During our progress from the garden gate (No. 29 in plan) westward and northward to the Barbican, we have passed the long ranges of new buildings that either adjoin or actually abut upon the outer face of the curtain-walls (Nos. 16 to 21 in plan), by no means unimportant parts of the latest restoration, which comprise all the domestic offices and the whole stable department of the castle. These buildings, which have been planned and constructed with the highest architectural and engineering skill, are on a scale of princely magnitude; and of them it may truly be said that they leave nothing to be desired. Of one only of these new edifices is it necessary that we should make particular mention; this is No. 19 on the plan, a noble apartment, covered with an open timber hammer-beam roof. In consequence of there being in the restored castle no such baronial hall as invariably formed the principal feature in a great mediæval stronghold, Duke Algernon built this Guest Hall in its stead, which might enable himself and his successors to assemble his and their tenantry and friends to partake of the always splendid hospitality of the Percies. This hall has also been used for concerts and various other purposes.

The Well in the Keep.

From the Barbican we retrace our steps so far as to traverse the roadway that leads to the inner Gate-House (No. 2 in plan), that we may explore the magnificent Keep: this, however, is a duty we postpone; pausing for a while, and resting beneath the tree that grows beside the Barbican. Presently, we shall resume our biographical sketch, and observe by what means an only daughter once again became the ancestress of a noble lineage, and through them brought to the house and castle of the Percies a still more exalted dignity and a still higher honour than ever before had been attained by them.

The Constable’s Tower.

And we rejoice to know that the noble line of the Percies was not destined finally to fail with a failure of a direct heir male; it also is a subject for rejoicing that over the towers of Alnwick there still should wave a banner, charged with the same quarterings that in the olden time were so well known to the breezes of Northumberland. As it has been well said, Alnwick Castle has ever been esteemed as the old head-quarters of border chivalry; and, in truth, it is a subject for national pride to feel it has that same aspect still. No one assuredly can “look upon this very ‘gudlye howsse,’ as King Harry’s commissioners called it, or upon its grassy courts fringed with ‘faire towres,’ its stately keep with its ‘marveylouse fare vaulte’ ‘and tryme ladgings,’” as they are described about the middle of the sixteenth century, in the survey made by Clarkson for the seventh earl, “without feeling that he had seen the martial, social, and most knightly centre of mediæval life in Northumberland.” And so also, in like manner, no one now can visit Alnwick Castle, and not feel deeply impressed with the conviction that the England, of which the past history possesses monumental records and still living witnesses such as this, is a land rich as well in the most precious elements of present strength as in the most glorious of memories; and so, when her true sons look forward to the future of England, they may do so in the spirit of the fine old motto of the Percies—ESPERANCE.

The annals of the truly noble family of the Percies, as we have seen, down to the death of Josceline, the eleventh earl, in 1670, extend over five centuries, during three hundred and sixty-one years of which period, almost without interruption, the family was intimately connected with Alnwick. By the limitation of the patent of 1557, the youthful daughter of Earl Josceline was incapable of inheriting her father’s honours, and thus, at last, the Percies’ earldom again became extinct, when no inconsiderable part of their immense possessions lapsed to the crown: the great northern earldom, however, was not permitted in this manner to pass away without more than one fruitless effort on the part of collateral descendants to establish a claim to the succession.

Notwithstanding the alienation of some of the estates consequent upon the extinction of the Earldom of Northumberland, Elizabeth Percy, the daughter of the last earl, was the most wealthy heiress in the realm; and, accordingly, it was considered to be a matter of the greatest importance that a suitable alliance should be arranged for her with the least possible delay. When but little more than a child, in 1679, she was married to Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, and heir to the Duke of Newcastle, who died in the following year. Before another year had expired, the youthful widow was again married to Thomas Thynn of Longleat; but once more the heiress became a widow very shortly after her marriage. Her second husband was murdered early in 1682, as he was passing in his coach along Pall Mall. While she was still not more than fifteen years of age, within three months after the tragedy in Pall Mall, Elizabeth Percy became the wife of Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, by whom only she had issue: she died in 1722, leaving, besides three daughters, one only surviving son, Algernon, who in 1748 succeeded his father as seventh Duke of Somerset. In 1749 this duke was created Baron of Warkworth and Earl of Northumberland, with remainder of those dignities to the heirs male of his daughter, his only surviving child, by her marriage with Sir Hugh Smithson. The duke died in 1750, when the Seymour dignities reverted to the male descendants of the Protector Somerset by his first marriage. Thus, once more, an only daughter, now bearing the paternal name of Seymour, was the heiress and representative of the Percy lords of Alnwick: and thus, by reason of his alliance with this lady, Sir Hugh Smithson became jure uxoris, by special Act of Parliament, Earl of Northumberland; and he himself, his countess, and their descendants, were empowered and authorised to take and use the surname of Percy alone, and to bear and quarter all the armorial insignia of that noble house.

The fortunate husband of this last heiress of the Percies, on the death of his grandfather, Sir Hugh Smithson, in the year 1729, succeeded to the baronetcy, which had been conferred by Charles II. in 1663 on that grandfather’s grandfather, also a Hugh Smithson. A remarkably handsome man, with a refined taste, and in many other respects well qualified for the distinguished destiny which awaited him, Sir Hugh Smithson is said to have been in no slight degree indebted for his eventual splendid matrimonial success to a previous failure. He had attracted the attention of Lady Percy, who, on hearing that some other lady had rejected the suit of Sir Hugh Smithson, expressed her surprise that any lady should have refused to accept such a man. The words of the fair and noble heiress reached the ears of the disconsolate baronet, and they promptly wrought a marvellous change in his views and aspirations. Upon the hint so given Sir Hugh spoke, and—his words were not in vain. In nearly all the “Peerages,” borrowed one from another, it is stated that this Sir Hugh Smithson early in life went to London, where he established himself in business as an apothecary. Although no slur would thus have been cast on the illustrious race, it is simply untrue. The following statement, extracted from a “Baronetage” published in 1727, may be accepted in proof:—

“The present Sir Hugh Smithson married a sister of the late Lord Langdale, and had two sons, who lived to man’s estate. Hugh, the eldest, died unmarried before his father; Langdale Smithson, the second son, married Miss Revely, by whom he left only one son, Hugh—now a minor, and a most hopeful young gentleman—so that there now remain only two heirs to the title and estate—this young gentleman, Sir Hugh’s grandson, and Hugh Smithson, of Tottenham, Esq., cousin of Sir Hugh.”

The East Garret.

The “young gentleman” in question succeeded his grandfather as Sir Hugh Smithson, of Stanwick. There was no trace in any documents or papers of his ever having been in any position but that of the acknowledged heir to a considerable estate and to a baronetage, granted to his ancestor for his loyalty and sacrifices in the royal cause during the civil wars of Charles I.[21] He married Lady Percy on the 16th of July, 1740, when he became Earl of Northumberland with all the territorial greatness attendant on that earldom.

The Garden Gate, or Warder’s Tower.

In 1766 the earl was created Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy, with succession to his heirs male; and, finally, in 1784, the barony of Lovaine was added to the duke’s accumulated dignities, with remainder to the younger of his two sons. The duchess died in 1776, but the duke survived till 1786: they had one daughter, who died unmarried, and two sons, Hugh and Algernon, of whom the elder succeeded his father as second Duke of Northumberland, a distinguished general officer in the first American War. The second duke married, first, a daughter of the then Earl of Bute; and, secondly, Frances Julia, third daughter of Peter Burrell, Esquire, a Commissioner of the Excise, by whom he had a numerous family: the duke died in 1817, and was succeeded by Hugh, his eldest son, who thus became the third Duke of Northumberland, the princely representative of George IV. at the coronation of Charles X. of France. This third duke died, without issue, in 1847, having married Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, youngest daughter of Earl Powis: and thus the dukedom passed to the third duke’s brother, the younger son of the second duke, who at the time of his brother’s death bore the title of Baron Prudhoe—an independent peerage to which he himself had been elevated in 1816, in consideration of his services as an officer in the navy.

Algernon Percy, fourth Duke of Northumberland, was born in 1792; in 1842 he married the Lady Eleanor Grosvenor, daughter of the Marquis of Westminster; in 1847 he succeeded to the honours and possessions of his family; he was created a K.G. in 1852, when he also held the office of First Lord of the Admiralty; and on February 12th, 1865, he died at Alnwick Castle, and, as his brother and predecessor had died, without any issue. Like the great soldier, with whose memory the dukedom of Wellington must ever be directly associated, Sir Algernon Percy will long be remembered with affectionate and grateful admiration as The Duke of Northumberland. A true English sailor, a princely English Nobleman, an elegant scholar and an accomplished gentleman, large of heart too and open of hand, with his commanding presence Duke Algernon looked every inch a Percy; and, in very deed, in his person were centred the brightest of the brilliant qualities of his forefathers, in happy combination with those admirable endowments that were peculiarly his own.

The two sons of the first duke (as we have seen) bore the same names as the two sons of his successor the second duke—Hugh and Algernon Percy. The two brothers, the sons of the first duke, married two sisters, daughters of Mr. Burrell.[22] With Duke Algernon the line of Hugh, the elder of the sons of the first duke, became extinct; and, consequently, the succession to the dukedom passed to the descendants of that other Algernon who was the younger son of the first duke. This Algernon, who on the death of his father became Baron Lovaine, in 1798 was created Earl of Beverley: he died in 1830. George Percy, his son, then succeeded as Earl of Beverley; and subsequently, in 1865, at that time being in the 87th year of his age, this venerable nobleman became the fifth Duke of Northumberland. He died August 21, 1867; and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son (by his marriage with Louisa, daughter of the Hon. A. Stuart Wortley). The present peer, Algernon George Percy, sixth Duke and eighteenth Earl of Northumberland, Earl Percy, Earl of Beverley, Baron Warkworth, Baron Lovaine of Alnwick, and a baronet, was born May 2nd, 1810, and was educated at Eton. He entered the army in 1827, and retired in 1836. In 1858 he was a Lord of the Admiralty, in 1859 Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and from 1831 to 1865 sat in Parliament, first for Beeralston and afterwards for North Northumberland. He is Colonel of the Northumberland Militia, Hon. Colonel of the Percy Northumberland Volunteer Artillery, and President of the National Lifeboat Institution. In 1845 his grace married Louisa, daughter of the late Henry Drummond, Esq., M.P., of Abury Park, Surrey, by whom he has issue living two sons, viz., Henry George Percy, Earl of Percy, married, in 1868, to Lady Edith Campbell, eldest daughter of the Duke of Argyll, by whom he has issue; and Lord Algernon Malcolm Arthur Percy. His grace is patron of twenty-two livings, nineteen of which are in Northumberland and one each in Yorkshire, Dorsetshire, and Surrey.

The arms of the Duke of Northumberland are: Quarterly, 1st and 4th Lovaine and Lucy quarterly (viz., 1st and 4th, or, a lion rampant, azure, for Lovaine, 2nd and 3rd, gules, three luces or pikes, hauriant, for Lucy), 2nd and 3rd, azure, five lozenges conjoined in fesse, or, for Percy. Crest: On a chapeau, gules, turned up, ermine, a lion statant, tail extended, azure. Supporters: Dexter, a lion, azure; sinister, a lion, guardant, or, gorged with a collar compony, argent and azure.

His grace’s other seats are, Keilder, Prudhoe, and Warkworth castles, in Northumberland; Sion House, Middlesex; Stanwick Park, Yorkshire; Albury Park; and Northumberland House, Charing Cross.

Thus having brought down our sketch of the lords of Alnwick, from the early days in English history that immediately followed the Norman Conquest to the times now present, we return to their noble castle on the banks of the Aln.

Within a few years of the Conquest, the Normans erected in various parts of England important edifices, both military and ecclesiastical, in truly astonishing numbers: and of these, in addition to the cathedrals and the greater churches, there still exist many noble castellated relics, some of them in a proximate degree retaining the leading features of their original arrangement, form, and appearance. At the same time, even in the case of the most perfect of the existing castles, many changes of grave importance have been introduced as century has succeeded to century; so that now, whenever any one early castle is examined with a view to trace out and to determine both what it was at the first, and in what order and with what motives certain palpable alterations and innovations have followed one another, it always is highly satisfactory to feel that an unquestionable general uniformity of plan and arrangement in all the early castles enables each one of them that is still in being, in some degree at any rate, to illustrate and explain every other. As a matter of course, whenever the architectural features in any old castle are original, the great art of the architect is able, unaided and beyond all controversy, to tell its own historical tale: but, genuine original architectural features are not always available to give their conclusive evidence; and, but too frequently, without some external aid, it is not possible to follow the career of the two terrible adversaries of early edifices (and particularly those of the noblest rank), demolition and restoration—demolition, either wilful or the result of accident and chance; and restoration, which always is wilful, though happily not always equally destructive.

As it now stands, in every quality of high merit Alnwick Castle certainly yields to no other restored edifice of a similar rank. Of the castle of to-day it may truthfully be affirmed that, with a close approach to an exact fidelity, in its prevailing external arrangements and its general features it represents the grand old fortress of times long passed away. Time had dealt somewhat hardly with the Percy stronghold, and injudicious attempts to make good the ravages of the destroyer had aggravated the evil, when the recent great work of restoration was taken in hand. Then every vestige of the old structure was diligently and carefully examined, and every available early document was critically studied; the remains also of other castles then were investigated, and all that they could suggest was applied by the restorers of Alnwick to the furtherance of their great project. Hence the plan of Alnwick, as we now have it, while it can scarcely claim to be absolutely identical with the original plan, may be accepted as not greatly differing from it in any essential particulars. Whether Yvo de Vesci, the undoubted founder of the castle, was enabled fully to carry out his own original plans, we are not able at the present time accurately to determine; but, still it may be assumed that the plans of De Vesci, to whatever degree they may have been realised by himself, both in extent and in general configuration closely resembled those which were worked out by the Percies, when they had become lords Alnwick, as these, in their turn, were afterwards followed as their guides by the recent restorers who were employed by Duke Algernon.

Bond Gate: “Hotspur’s Gate.”

The great epochs in the architectural history of Alnwick Castle may be thus distinguished.

I. De Vesci, about A.D. 1150: the original founding of the castle, and its erection as an Anglo-Norman stronghold.

II. First Percy, from 1309 to 1315: the second founding and great reparation of the castle, with either the complete rebuilding or the original erection of many of its most important parts. At this period were erected the Barbican, the Gate-House, the Western Garret; the Abbot’s, Falconer’s, Armourer’s, Constable’s, and Auditor’s Towers; also the Postern and the Ravine Towers, the Gateway between the first and second baly, with the adjoining curtain-walls both east and west, a great portion of the east side of the Keep, the Well, and the grand Baronial Hall.

III. Second Percy, from 1315 to 1352; the completion of portions of the works of the preceding period, and the erection of the two flanking towers (No. 8 in plan) in advance of the Norman entrance to the Keep: these towers are represented in our engraving.

IV. Third Percy, ending in 1455: various important reparations and additions, most of the latter having been removed by the first duke in the next period.

V. First Duke of Northumberland, from 1750 to 1786: general reparation, after a long period of neglect and ruin, including a material transformation of the greater part of the castle. The Keep was almost entirely demolished, and rebuilt after the manner that was called (and, in one sense of that term, really was) “Gothic” in the eighteenth century in England; and the towers and curtain of the circumvallation suffered in like manner.

VI. Fourth Duke of Northumberland, from 1854 to 1865: complete restoration of the entire castle. The important works erected by Duke Algernon along the lines of the circumvallation, and to the south and the south-west of these lines, have already been described; in addition to these, the duke rebuilt the range of apartments extending from the Keep southwards to the Edwardian Gateway from the first to the second baly; and he built the noble Prudhoe Tower, with the chapel adjoining it, the Ante-Room, the Guard Chamber, the present Dining-Hall, and the completion of the Keep.

The governing idea of this restoration was really to restore, in all their leading and most characteristic features, the mediæval arrangements and aspect of Alnwick Castle so far as its exterior was concerned; while, at the same time, the whole of the interior of the restored edifice was to be planned, fitted, and adorned, in the most sumptuous style, after the manner of a cinquecento Roman palace, and with all the luxurious splendour and the various skilful contrivances required and suggested by the taste and the usages of the present day. The only important deviation from the former part of the duke’s plan, was the removal of the Edwardian Towers, and the adjoining curtain-wall between the Abbot’s Tower and the Postern Tower, in order to open the view from the windows of the new Prudhoe Tower towards the north: but the Italian portion of the scheme was accomplished in its integrity. The whole of the architectural restoration and rebuilding was carried out with the most perfect success, under the direction of Mr. Salvin, an architect eminently distinguished for his practical knowledge of the Early Gothic of England in its military aspect, as also for both the conscientious fidelity of his restorations and the judicious consistency of his original designs. We can easily understand with what satisfaction Mr. Salvin must have removed the Strawberry Hill pseudo-Gothic of the first duke, as well as the far higher gratification which must have attended the progressive realisation of his own truly admirable compositions.

Alnwick Abbey.

The project for causing the thoroughly English mediæval military-Gothic casket of Mr. Salvin to enclose contents that should be in every respect the very reverse of what is either English or mediæval or military or Gothic, was discussed and finally adopted at a congress held in the castle under the presidency of Algernon, Duke of Northumberland, and attended by the English professors of classic architecture, Cockerell and Donaldson; the Roman antiquary, the Commendatore Canina; and the Italian architect, Signor Montiroli. It is to be regretted that such masters of Gothic Art as Scott, Waterhouse, Street, and Burges had not also been present, who might have saved the Border Castle of the Percies from the magnificent anomaly of being externally English and internally Roman. The execution of the whole of the interior can be described only in terms of the highest commendation; and it is especially satisfactory to know that the profusion of carved work in an Italian style which was required for the various purposes of decoration, and which has been pronounced to be “a marvel of delicacy and finish,” was produced under the direction of Signor Bulletti of Florence, by a staff of English and Scottish carvers, who worked for several years in a studio established for that particular purpose in the castle. There also was a second studio, in which the more important of the decorations in plaster were modelled and cast. It is scarcely necessary to add that in all the minor details of furnishing, the grand original plan has been fully and faithfully carried into effect. While we cordially recognise as well the enlarged views and the princely munificence of the duke himself, as the skill, the taste, and the ability of every individual who took part in his great work of restoration, it is impossible not to regret that so glorious an opportunity for vindicating the versatile and comprehensive powers of true Gothic art should have been permitted to pass away. There can be no question as to the capacity of the same great style to have rendered the interior of Alnwick Castle a type of splendid, and yet agreeable, magnificence, which on the exterior has displayed its structural resources in a manner at once so noble and so consistent. But, as this was not to be, we rejoice in knowing that what has been done within the Percy walls has been done so well; and our gratification is the more sincere and the more hearty, because at every point the Percy walls themselves, true to their grand traditions, wear such an aspect as Hotspur might have recognised with an approving smile, and the old Earls of Northumberland would have been proud to accept as becoming their northern home.[23]

The Percy Cross.

And here we resume our survey of the castle, setting forth towards the Keep from within the Gate-House, which is itself situated within the Barbican. We proceed eastwards to the gateway (No. 2 in plan), which admits us to the second or inner baly. From this we approach the entrance to the Keep, and pass between the Edwardian flanking towers with their octagonal fronts (No. 3 in the plan): thus we reach the grand old Norman arch, De Vesci’s work, massive and deeply recessed, rich with zig-zags and bands of sharp indentations, which forms the main entrance to the innermost court or ward of the Keep itself. Immediately adjoining the Norman archway is the draw-well constructed by the first Percy. Now we have before us the new Corridor, carried round a part of the court on piers and corbels. We pass the inner porches, and the entrance-halls, and reach the Grand Staircase (No. 5 in plan), worthily so called, and we find that we have entered such a palace as might overlook, not the Aln, but the Tiber. At the head of the noble flight of steps, each one of them a single block of white Rothbury stone, twelve feet in length, is the Guard-Chamber, with its floor of rich Venetian mosaic, its panelled ceiling, and the deep frieze reflecting the memories of Chevy Chase. Corridors lead to both the right hand and the left from the Guard-Room; and it also gives access to a gorgeous Ante-Room, placed between the great Library, 54 feet long, which occupies the entire range of the Prudhoe Tower, and follows its contour; and the Saloon, another magnificent apartment, in length 42 feet with a bay formed by a circular tower. Next succeeds the State Drawing-Room, of irregular form, its largest measurements being 46 by 34 feet. Then we enter the grand Dining-Hall, 60 feet long, and in both width and height 24 feet, which covers the site of the old baronial hall of the early Percies. The Breakfast-Room adjoins this most princely hall, and, passing it, the Corridor leads us in succession to the State Bed-Rooms and Dressing-Rooms, and to the private apartments of the duke and duchess, together with other staircases. Thus, on the principal floor there are two staircases besides the grand staircase, and eighteen chambers, exclusive of the chapel. The Chapel (No. 12 in plan), of which we give a view from the outer baly, is a building of great beauty and interest, having a stone-vaulted ceiling within a roof of a high pitch, a semi-octagonal apsidal end towards the south-west, and lancet windows: its total length is 46 feet, and in the interior it is enriched with Italian mosaic, after the manner of the Henry III. work in the Confessor’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey. We must be content, in a single brief sentence (the space at our disposal restricts us absolutely to one such sentence), to state concerning every apartment in the grand range of the entire circuit of the Keep, and also in the southern wing, which extends to the Percy gateway, that the most gorgeous Art of the Italian Renaissance, with all its manifold resources, has been taxed to the utmost in order to produce a palace of the highest rank, pervaded throughout with harmonious, yet ever-varied, magnificence.

Hulne Abbey: The Percy Tower.

On the ground-floor, which is on the same level with the entrance-hall, are the various apartments, consistently grouped and classified, required by the principal domestics of the household, together with the wine-cellars, pantries, and such other chambers and appliances as would be necessary to complete this department of the ducal establishment. Once more we return to the Prudhoe Tower, and ascend above its two upper floors of bed and dressing-rooms, to the Banner-turret, which rises to the height of two additional floors; and here, having gained the leads, standing beneath the proud insignia of the Percies, heavily blazoned upon their broad silken banner, we lean over the embattled parapet, and look down upon the Keep, and around upon the cordon of towers and walls, and the fair domains and the silvery river beyond, and so we bid farewell to the lordly castle of Alnwick.

Until the middle of the fifteenth century was near at hand the town of Alnwick remained unprotected by a wall, and open consequently to all perils incidental to its position on the Border. About the year 1433, however, the good town was fortified with walls, and the four entrances were defended each by its own strong tower-guarded gateway. One only of these early gateways still remains in a fair condition of preservation; this, the Bond Gate, sometimes (but without any other reason than a lingering delight to associate any fine old relic at Alnwick with that name) is called “Hotspur’s Gate.” It bears a badge of the second Percy lord of Alnwick, and in all probability was erected by him; its outer face is represented in the engraving.

The other gateways have disappeared;[24] and from the time that border-strife passed into the domain of history, the walls of Alnwick gradually ceased to exist, until now traces only of their former existence, and of these “few and far between,” remain to attest the record of their having ever existed. Devoutly it is to be hoped that the one relic of the town of the olden time, the Bond Gate, will be cherished, simply because it is such a relic—because it links the town to the castle, and the castle to the town, with the strong tie of historical association. Again space, or rather the want of it, constrains us to leave unnoticed the fine church of St. Michael, the church of St. Paul, founded and erected by Duke Hugh, and the other public buildings in Alnwick; and, with them, the privileges, usages, and the entire local history of the town.[25]

Of the remains of the early edifices, both ecclesiastical and castellated, which are closely associated with Alnwick Castle, all of them of great interest, and all of them also no less worthy of detailed description than of careful examination, we must be content briefly to notice two—Alnwick Abbey, and Hulne, or Holn, Priory.

Hulne Abbey: The Church.

Built to the north of the Aln, at an easy distance from the castle, upon a rich soil and in a scene of sequestered beauty, Alnwick Abbey, founded in 1147 by Eustace de Vesci for Premonstratensian Canons, was richly endowed by the founder and also by his successor. The Percies, in like manner, were in every respect as munificent as the earlier benefactors of the abbey, so that it long occupied an honourable position among the religious establishments of the country. The canons of Alnwick, however, did not rise to distinction in consequence of any eminent attainments; but, on the other hand, while in earlier times they were somewhat notorious for a turbulent spirit, the report on their abbey made to Henry VIII. contains a truly deplorable record of the degrading superstitions by means of which, in common with but too many of their brethren, the monks imposed on the people, and sometimes even succeeded in deceiving themselves. Of the buildings of the abbey, which, without doubt, were worthy to take rank with those of the castle, the sole relic that is still in existence is a turreted and embattled gateway, a structure not earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century. The eastern face of this gateway displays the quartered arms of Percy and Lucy; on the other faces are the insignia of De Vesci. The other buildings have altogether disappeared, except here and there some sculptured stones which have found their way into the walls of houses constructed by modern masons. The site of the abbey, with the Northumberland estates once annexed to it, after various vicissitudes, has become the property of the Dukes of Northumberland.

Distant from Alnwick Abbey about two miles along the northern bank of the Aln, and like the abbey placed in the midst of the most lovely scenery, the Priory of Hulne, or Holn, has so far been more fortunate than its more dignified neighbour, that it yet possesses considerable remains of its original buildings in a condition of picturesque ruin. A lofty wall still encircles the entire area of the priory—a feature sufficiently significant of the lawless character of early Border-life, and of the stern necessity which constrained even a religious community to rely for security upon the strength of its fortifications. In our engraving we show the present aspect of the tower, built, as will be seen, with massive solidity, by Henry de Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland, in the year 1488; and in another engraving, we give a general view of the ruins of the church, as they are seen from the north-east. It is pleasant to be able to add that the remains of Hulne Priory are carefully preserved and freely shown. The brethren, who for more than three centuries found a secure dwelling-place surrounded with the most beautiful scenery, were Carmelite or White Friars; and a romantic story (of which several versions are in existence) is told concerning their order in connection with the foundation of this priory. The site of the priory was given by the second William de Vesci about 1240; but the chief endowment came, between 1252 and 1289, from John de Vesci; the house itself, however, appears to have been erected by Ralph Fulborne, a wealthy landholder of Northumberland, who lived in the stirring times when the lords of broad and fertile acres went armed to fight in the Holy Land against the infidels.[26] In after times the Percies confirmed the grants of the earlier benefactors of Hulne, and made to them some slight additions. The Carmelites of Hulne were men who, according to the light of their times, cultivated learning; this is shown by the still existing catalogue of the numerous manuscripts that once formed their library. There has also been preserved another equally curious and interesting document, formerly the property of these Carmelite brethren; it is an inventory of their vestments and of the fittings of their church, which must have been very costly as well as numerous and splendid. Inventories and catalogues such as these possess a peculiar value, as illustrations of the intellectual pursuits and character of the monastic age, and also in consequence of the light they throw upon the sentiments and usages that then were prevalent in our country.

Descending from the secluded hill-side where the ruins of Hulne Priory nestle amidst the thick woods, and crossing both the vale below, and the river beyond it, a roadway leads to the beautiful pleasure-grounds of Hulne Park. Here on one of the highest of the many elevated points, and rising above the surrounding trees, is the Tower on the Hill, or Brislee Tower, erected by the first duke in 1781. This structure is a characteristic specimen of the Gothesque architecture, of which so much was happily removed during the recent restorations, from Alnwick Castle. From the upper balcony of this tower, at a height of about 70 feet from the ground, the view is singularly fine, and in its extent truly extraordinary. At different points of the compass, and at varying distances, this panoramic view comprehends the vale of Whittingham and the windings of the Aln; the range of the Cheviots, with a glimpse of the hills of Teviotdale forty miles away; the memorable high land of Flodden may also be distinguished; and, towards the sea, are the castles of Warkworth, Bambro’, and Dunstanburgh; and beyond them, in a fringe-like line, lies the sea itself.

It is needless to say that the hospitality for which the lords of Alnwick have been renowned since the first stone of the castle was laid is still maintained within its princely walls; its list of “visitors” during many centuries past has contained the names of those who were not only the loftiest in rank but the most eminent in Art, Science, and Letters.

Its park and grounds are among the most perfect in the kingdom;[27] successive lords have laboured to make them beautiful, and Nature had given auspicious ground on which to work—hill and dell alternate; a lovely and rapid, though narrow, river runs through them; on either side are green banks, in many places overhung by the rich foliage of varied trees; here and there views are obtained of the distant hills—the Cheviots—with their thousand traditions of times happily gone by, but which excite interest by their associations with heroic deeds—and not unfrequently their “opposites”—of which every spot is fertile on the border that separates Scotland from England.

The Brislee Tower.

Happily, there is now no sensation of jealousy or envy, nothing that can either humiliate or exasperate, when the Scottishman boasts of triumphs over his southern neighbours; nor when he admits that, often, before the bold men of Northumberland he shrunk back in mortal dread. The glories of the one have long ceased to be the degradations of the other; and the spirit of rivalry is only that which has for its aim and object the supremacy of the country of both. Will the happy time ever arrive when the three kingdoms shall be as essentially one as the two have been for centuries past?