Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

The lordship descended from the Caverswells, who enjoyed it until the nineteenth of Edward III., when by the heir-general it passed to the Montgomerys, and subsequently to the Giffards, the Ports, the family of Hastings, Earls of Huntingdon, who were owners of it in the seventeenth century; and, by purchase, to Matthew Cradock, Esq., whose father, we are told in a celebrated letter of Sir Simon Degge’s, was a wool-buyer at Stafford. In the reign of James I., this latter proprietor, it is said, employed the skill of the celebrated Inigo Jones to erect the present castellated mansion. The site of this solemn fortress-like structure, enriched by the dark-grey tints of age, is the rock which gave foundation to Sir William de Caverswell’s Castle. The grit-stone of which it is built has been excavated from the moat that surrounds the whole; the same being the case no doubt with the materials of the earlier building, for the circumstance, as we shall see, is alluded to in the Latin lines on the founder’s tomb. The Castle is placed upon an elevated quadrangular platform, which is defended by a curtain running along each side, having a number of graduated buttresses rising from the moat, and by an octagonal turret, with its base dipping in the fosse, at each angle. The pointed arched gateway, approached by a stone bridge, is flanked by an additional turret on each side, like the others, balustraded at the top. This balustrade formerly was carried round the top of the Castle also. Its removal in recent times has been injurious to picturesque effect; hence the artist has retained this proper mark of style in our lithotint. The quadrangle of the Castle is laid out in gravelled walks, shaded by fine hedges of hornbeam, and a beautiful flower-garden, exhibiting many of the gems of Flora’s chaplet, and some remarkably fine specimens of Cotoneaster trained along the walls. The building itself is chiefly interesting as presenting the ideal of the great architect of the transition from the ancient castle to the baronial mansion. The keep may be said to be still retained in the lofty square tower, which overtops the building at its western end. Two great bays ascend, one on each side, to the top of the building, which break the plainness of the front, and afford additional light to the apartments. The numerous windows are all large, divided by deep mullions; and in a winter’s evening, when most of the rooms are occupied, a distant spectator might conceive there was an illumination in the Castle. The rooms are plain, and afford nothing worthy of particular note. The square tower is chiefly occupied by staircases. The turrets have been converted into apartments of residence. Whilst around the whole, flow the dark yet clear waters of the moat, which expands on the western side into a small lake. This moat is supplied by a number of springs and a limpid rill that runs into it. Its outer margin receives the shade of some fine limes. As if in pointed contrast to all this panoply of defence, on the inner margin of the fosse there is seen a pretty little flower-border, occupying the recesses between the buttresses which support the platform.

We have here an indication of the peaceful, unwarlike purpose to which this sombre fortress is now devoted. On the decease of Matthew Cradock, Esq., who built the present Castle, it came into the hands of his son, George Cradock, Esq., who died in 1643,[28] with whose descendants it remained only till 1655. From them it passed to Sir William Jolliffe, Knight; and from him, by marriage with his daughter, to William Viscount Vane, of Ireland. It subsequently passed into the hands of the family of Parker, one worthy descendant of which house, Thomas Hawe Parker, Esq., resides at Park Hall, near the village, and still retains the manor. During the disastrous wars of the French Revolution, it was purchased for the retreat of a religious community from Ghent, in Belgium,--the Benedictine Dames,--who emigrated hither in 1811, having previously settled at Preston, in Lancashire. These ladies, in their antique black dresses and hoods, as they traverse the terraces on the platform of the Castle, or engage in the cultivation of their flower-gardens, give an air of surprising interest, of living reality, to this castellated mansion of other ages. They have erected a good-sized chapel on the eastern side of the house, in which is a large picture over the altar representing St. Benedict and St. Scholastica praying to the virgin; and they devote much of their time to the purposes of education. On the opposite side of the moat, amidst the shade of surrounding trees, we perceive the final resting-place of the sisterhood. In this neat little plot is a number of tombstones, two of which are distinguished from the rest by bearing the cross and pastoral staff--emblems of ghostly superintendence. They mark the graves of Lady Abbesses. One lay sister, now rapidly descending the vale of years, is the only religieuse who came over with the original refugees.

A doorway, now closed, formerly led from the Castle to the Church, which is close by. It is a spacious village church, dedicated to St. Peter, embosomed in a grove of

sycamores, and presenting, like many others, indications of great antiquity--indications which are almost overgrown with the additions and reconstructions of nearly every period since its foundation. The piers of the nave, which give support to a series of semicircular arches, from their plainness most probably belong to the Norman style. The decorated finds its representatives in the belfry arch, and the two aisles of the nave; whilst the perpendicular is fairly displayed in the handsome eastern window of the tower. This tower and the aisles may be referred to the fourteenth century. The beauties and harmonies of the whole have been sadly marred, especially by the low flat ceilings, which extend from the tower to the chancel, in different stages of degradation. The nave contains some plain low oaken stalls, very ancient. Some pews also and the pulpit exhibit specimens of carving in oak in a pleasing style--an illustration of which forms our initial letter. The Church is rich in monuments. Beyond mentioning a fine evidence of Chantrey’s skill, in a monumental figure to the memory of the Countess of St. Vincent,--the lady kneels in an attitude of submissiveness to the inevitable stroke, her coronet being laid aside,--beyond this mere mention, and that the family vaults and monuments of the Parker family, of Park Hall, the patrons of the living, exist here, we shall confine ourselves to the memorials of the two founders of the ancient and more modern Castles of Caverswall. At the entrance to the chancel, near to the foot of the pulpit stairs, is a massy slab of grey marble, laid in the floor. This is all that now remains of the monument of Sir William de Caverswell, the builder of the Castle in the time of Edward II., about A.D. 1300. It has originally contained a large and elegant cross-fleurie, stretching over the entire length of the slab, a shield on each side, and an inscription running along the head and the two sides, all in inlaid brass. Erdeswick, the Staffordshire antiquary, who described it about two hundred and fifty years ago, tells us that then the metal had been taken out. He adds, in a parenthesis, “such is the iniquity of this day;” but yet he was able to perceive what the letters were. These letters are in a fine character of the period, before black-letter was employed. Having carefully examined them, we were still able to decipher the whole, and now present a more correct reading than has ever before appeared, which, together with the accurate drawing of this rich and finished tablet (printed on the front page of this article) by our artist, Mr. F. Hulme, will, we trust, preserve a faint memory of the original. The inscription commences at an ornamental cross near the top on the left side, and ends at one opposite.

†Hic: jacet: Will[=s]: de: Kaverswelle: miles.†

Then follow these lines along the two sides:--

“Castri: strvctor: eram: domibvs: fossis: que: cemento.
Vivvs: dans: operam: nvnc: clavdor: in: hoc: monvmento.”

Which Dr. Plot informs us was Englished thus:--

“Sir William of Caverswall, here lye I,
Who built the Castle, and made the pooles by.”

In a spirit not altogether inaccordant with the original, another hand added this couplet, as Dr. Plot further says:--

“Sir William of Caverswall here you lye,
Your Castle is down, and your pooles are dry.”

In the south wall of the chancel is a mural tablet in memory of Matthew Cradock, Esq., the founder of the present Caverswall Castle. In its style, this monument bears

marks of the age in which it was constructed,--the reign of Charles I. It is worthy of note, however, that, whilst the hand of man, as well as his foot, has continually warred against the monumental memorial of his great predecessor for more than five hundred years, without being able to obliterate the recognition of his name and merits, the inscription on that of Matthew Cradock, although not of half the antiquity, protected and even partially renewed, is now, in the main, irrevocably effaced. It has commenced in these terms, “Hic sepelitvr Matie Cr rmig.” The rest is so greatly defaced, as only to allow us to make out that he married Elizabeth, the daughter of a Salopian esquire, and that his first-born child married the daughter of John Saunders, M.D., which agrees with the inscription on the mural tablet of George Cradock, Esq. Some lines in white paint below profess to have derived their origin from “ I. M. R. E. de Stoke.” Matthew Cradock, we believe, was a merchant, and was returned to Parliament, A.D. 1640, 15 Charles I., for the City of London. His arms appear upon the tablet.

At an early period of the contest between Charles and his Parliament, Caverswall Castle seems to have excited notice, and was garrisoned for the Parliament; the family, no doubt, took this side. From the following entry of the Committee at Stafford, the widow of George Cradock, Esq., appears to have received some marks of respect amidst this military intrusion. “Dec. 4, 1643.--It is ordered that Captain John Young shall forthwith repayre to Carswall House, and safely keepe the same for the use of the King and Parliament, until he shall have order to the contrarie. But he is to leave his horses behind him at Stafford; he is likewise to use Mrs. Cradock with all respect, and not suffer any spoyle or waste made of her goods.” “It is ordered that Mrs. Cradock shall have, towards the fortification of her house at Carswall, liberty to take, fell, cut downe, and carrie away any timber, or other materials, from any papist, delinquent, or malignant whatsoever.” “March 1, 1643-4.--It is ordered that Carswall be made unservisable.” This last order does not appear to have been fulfilled to the letter; for Caverswall Castle still remains unimpaired, sombre and venerable, to grace the verdant meads amid which it is situated--to shelter the religieuses who have succeeded the refugees from the Low Countries--and to show the pilgrim, who wanders through shady dells and by babbling brooks, catching the bland whisperings of the spirits of the past, that--

“Time
Has moulded into beauty many a tower,
Which, when it frown’d with all its battlements,
Was only terrible.”

INGESTRIE HALL,

STAFFORDSHIRE.

Perhaps there are few districts so rich in historical interest as that in which is situated this venerable Mansion. The manors of Shugborough, Sandon, Chartley--with its ruined Castle--Heywood, Blithfield, and Wolseley, are all within view; Tixal Heath, with its abundant legends, is close at hand;[29] and the ancient Town of Stafford is distant about three miles. Ingestrie, or, as now more commonly written, Ingestre, and anciently Ingestrent (from _ing_, in Danish, _a meadow_, that is, Trent Meadow), and in Domesday-book called _Gestreon_, was a part of the Great Barony of Stafford, and granted to Robert de Toeni by William the Conqueror, being then valued at 15_s._ 5_d._ In the reign of Henry the Second, it was held by Eudo, or Ivo de Mutton, or Mitton, who gave certain lands in Ingestre to the Priory of St. Thomas à Becket near adjoining, and then newly-founded: he afterwards became a lay-brother there, leaving his possessions to his son, Sir Ralph de Mutton, who had issue Adam and Philip, both knights. Sir Adam was also a benefactor to the fore-named convent, and had the presentation of a canon granted to him and his heirs for ever, to celebrate Divine Service for the souls of Sir Philip de Mutton, his brother, his own soul, and those of his ancestors and successors: he died in the fortieth year of the reign of Henry the Third, leaving by Isabella, his wife, Ralph, his son, who died without issue, and Isabella, his only daughter, married to Sir Philip de Chetwynd. After the death of Sir Philip de Mutton without issue, Philip de Chetwynd, son of Sir Philip and Isabella, became sole heir to that family (the Muttons) in his mother’s right, and was possessed of Ingestre, &c., &c.; which, by a continued succession, descended to Walter Chetwynd, Esq., who, dying without issue, his estates devolved to Captain Chetwynd, his near relation, whose descendants were created Barons of Ingestre and Talbot. In 1784, John Chetwynd Talbot, who succeeded his uncle William in the barony, was raised to the dignity of an Earl of the United Kingdom by the style and title of Earl Talbot of Ingestre.

His successor was his son, Charles Chetwynd, Earl Talbot of Ingestre, whose seat is still the noble old Hall of his ancestors. None of the nobles of the kingdom are more universally esteemed or respected. He has extensive estates in the immediate neighbourhood in his own holding; and is distinguished by his active promotion of agricultural improvements. The nobility and gentry of the surrounding district frequently assemble to witness the success of his experiments, and to participate in the hospitality of this noble “English farmer.” His Lordship, however, has not altogether eschewed public life. For some time he was the Irish Viceroy. The manor and estate of Ingestre have recently received a large accession by the purchase of the Tixal Estate, from Sir Clifford Constable, by the present Earl Talbot.

Ingestre Hall is pleasantly situated on a gentle declivity, sloping towards the river Trent, in a large and richly wooded park, which contains some remarkably fine beech and other trees.[30] The house has a stately and venerable appearance. It is in the style which prevailed during the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First--having various projections, bay windows, and others with stone mullions. The north front was built by the present Earl, corresponding in character with the south front; and like that also of brick and stone; by which means several elegant rooms and a grand staircase have been added. The north side has a terraced flower-garden ornamented by fountains, a stone balustrade, &c., which add much to the elegance of this part of the building. The interior well agrees with the exterior--consisting of large and well-proportioned apartments, the principal of which is the Library, an elegant room occupying the western portion of the Mansion, containing a valuable collection of Books, placed in handsome oak cases, with pilasters, &c., of the Corinthian order; also a beautiful marble fire-place. The Billiard-room is wainscotted with oak, one-third of its height, containing a variety of grotesque heads in small panels. The grand Staircase has a massive oak railing of arabesque character. The interior, however, has been greatly modernised; and its chief attraction to the antiquary will arise from the Family Portraits, which possess considerable interest. But the Mansion contains a rich treasure of historical and antiquarian lore: in the Library are preserved five Volumes in Manuscript, collected by Walter Chetwynd, Esq., consisting of Letters, Pedigrees, &c., &c.[31]

The present Church of Ingestre is situate very near the Hall, on the S.E. side (the ancient Church was on the S.W. side of the house), and is a plain but handsome structure in the Grecian style of architecture--consisting of a Tower; a Nave, with side aisles; and a Chancel; the Ceiling of the Nave being much enriched with festoons of fruit, flowers, &c.--and that of the Chancel with shields of arms, &c. The Nave is separated from the Chancel by an appropriate Screen, having the Royal Arms in relief over the Entrance, and, together with the Pulpit, &c., is of Flanders oak. The Chancel contains several mural Monuments of the Chetwynd Family, and Busts of the late Countess and a little Boy. There is an interesting mural Tablet for the late unfortunate Charles Thomas Viscount Ingestre, who was lost in a Morass, near Vienna, on the 23rd of May, 1826, being twenty-four years of age; it represents the extrication of his dead body. There is also a figure exhibiting Religion with a chalice in the hands. This is placed on a Monument to the present Earl’s brother, the late Rev. John Talbot, Rector of Ingestre, &c. The Church has six fine Bells, and an Organ; and was built by Walter Chetwynd, Esq., in 1673. A full account of the building and consecration of the Church is given by Dr. Plot, in his “Natural History of Staffordshire.”[32]

The neighbourhood of Ingestre is full of historical interest. On Hopton Heath (now inclosed), distant about a mile and a half, a bloody battle was fought on Sunday, the 19th of March, 1643, between the King’s troops, commanded by Spencer Compton Earl of Northampton, and the Parliamentary Forces under Sir John Gell and Sir William Brereton; in which the Earl, with six captains and about 600 soldiers, were all killed. Human bones and fragments of military weapons have been turned up by the plough on this spot. One of the most interesting of several ancient remains in the vicinity is that of Chartley Castle. It has been a ruin for more than a century. The Park contains a thousand acres, inclosed from the Forest of Needwood, and never submitted to the plough. It has long been inhabited by a noble herd of “wild cattle,” descended, _in a direct line_, from the wild cattle of the country which roamed at large in ancient times over the Forest of Needwood--probably a corruption of Neat’s Wood, or the Wood of Cattle. Chartley Castle was one of the prison-houses of Mary Queen of Scots. On the 21st of December, 1585, she took her final leave of Tutbury, and was removed to Chartley. It was during her residence at the latter place, that what has been denominated “Babington’s Plot,” was matured; which, on its discovery, led to the execution of no less than twelve persons engaged in it. The discovery of this plot, likewise, in which Mary herself was intimately involved, hastened the fate of the unhappy queen. It was whilst Mary was on horseback, enjoying the sports of the field, in this neighbourhood, that she received the messenger who communicated the discovery of her guilt. The announcement of the fatal intelligence which Sir Thomas Gorges conveyed, suddenly extinguished the fond expectations which had been so long cherished. She instantly directed her horse’s head homewards; but was not permitted to return thither. She was conveyed to Fotheringay--the last sad scene of her eventful history.

From a sketch by A. E. Everitt. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.

THE OAK HOUSE, WEST BROMWICH, STAFFORDSHIRE.]

THE OAK HOUSE, WEST BROMWICH,

STAFFORDSHIRE.

West Bromwich--a village distant a few miles from busy Birmingham--supplies a curious and interesting example of the half-timbered houses, of which many still remain in the Midland Counties of England. It is commonly known as “The Oak House,” is situated on the borders of the great Staffordshire coal-bed, and is now surrounded by collieries,--creating a dense and murky atmosphere, which almost hides the ancient mansion from sight. Yet the site was well chosen; for at the period of its erection it commanded extensive views of a picturesque and fertile country, now absolutely covered with iron-works and other results of the traffic peculiar to the district. Far as the eye can reach, it encounters only the smoke and steam which indicate busy labour; the few trees that endure to grace the landscape are stunted and sickly, and even the fields seem never to have borne a coating of natural green. Nevertheless, although the eye may turn away unrefreshed from a scene which exhibits Nature expelled by Commerce, the mind will be cheered to know that in these unsightly mountain-heaps, “dug from the bowels of the harmless earth,” originates the true supremacy of England. The coal-fields of Staffordshire and Warwickshire render available the gigantic discoveries which have made the present century already famous. Without their aid, science and manufacture could have achieved comparatively little; it is by such auxiliaries only we can set at work the forge and the foundry, where

“Incessant, day and night, each crater roars,
Like the volcano on Sicilian shores:
Their fiery wombs each molten mass combine;
Thence, lava-like, the boiling torrents shine;
Down the trenched sand the liquid metal holds,
Shoots showers of stars, and fills the hollow moulds.”

The “Poet of Science” seems to have had in view the locality to which we refer; at least, to no part of England are his lines more strictly applicable.

Little is known of the ancient possessors of the Oak House, notwithstanding that the direct descendants of the earliest occupants continued to inhabit it until towards the close of the last century. The only author who appears to have taken any note of them is the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, who in his “History of Staffordshire,” under the head of West Bromwich[33] states, that the Oak House belonged for several generations to a branch of the respectable old family of Turton, of Abrewas, near Lichfield; and the first mentioned in this parish was John Turton, in the freeholders’ book, A.D. 1653. Amongst the inscriptions formerly in the ancient Church of St. Clement, here, was one to the memory of William Turton, of the Oak, gent., who died A.D. 1682 (son of that John), and Eleanor his wife, daughter of Robert Page, of Leighton, in the county of Huntingdon, who died A.D. 1696, ætat. 61; and one also to John Turton, of the Oak, gent., the eldest son of the above William, who died December 6th, 1705, ætat. 45. This is the same John, no doubt, who, with William his brother and Sarah their sister, are mentioned in the will of Sir John Turton, of Abrewas, as his cousins. Either from the first mentioned John, or from another of that name settled at Rowley Regis, a few miles off, was, according to Shaw, descended the eminent physician Dr. Turton, of London, whose ancestors had for some years resided in an old house called “The Hall,” at Wolverhampton. The house and estate afterwards came into the possession, by will, of a Mrs. Whylie, who left it to the present owner, J. E. Piercy, Esq., of Warley Hall; and it is now inhabited by his agent, Mr. Samuel Reeves.

The general character of the building is that of the later years of the reign of Elizabeth; this will be sufficiently apparent from the drawing of the north front, which supplies our principal plate. The groups of tall chimneys, and the minor details of the doors, windows, &c., are all of that age; while evidence of its date is confirmed by the south or garden front (as will be seen by the accompanying vignette), built chiefly of red brick, and containing the pediments and square stone mullions of the period.

Upon entering the house, through the porch, we reach a narrow passage, formed by a small room, abstracted from “the Hall”--the spacious hall of former times. At the termination of this passage a door leads into the present hall, of far more limited extent, from which a broad flight of stairs conducts to the upper apartments. These apartments, however, having been long disused, exhibit the melancholy aspect of desertion and decay. The stairs consist of four flights, and the balusters of the whole are curiously carved; the small pendant hanging from the upper flight,

as seen from the first-floor landing, supplies our initial letter. On the ground-floor there are four of the rooms pannelled with oak, the chimney-pieces being carved in arabesques.

The peculiar feature of this house, however, is the very curious timber turret or lantern which rises nearly from the centre of the roof, and has its principal frontage towards the north. It is square, and forms one small room, to which a subsequent addition appears to have been made.

The parish Church (dedicated to St. Clement) is distant from the House about two miles. Modern “improvement” has been busily at work in mutilating and defacing it; yet “ignorant churchwardens” have been unable to deprive it entirely of the venerable character it derives from age.

From the little that remains of ancient work, the whole Church seems to have been built during the later period of the Decorated style of architecture, with here and there additional portions of a later date. On the south side there is a small chapel but whether used as a chantry or not is uncertain, the date upon it being as late as 1618. It is most probable that it was used as the burial-place of the Whorwoods; an old family, who inhabited a mansion built on the site of the Priory of Sandwell, which stood at a short distance from the Church. The Tower of the Church is square, of two stories, and has an octagonal turret on its northern side. The Font also is octagonal, with the sides pannelled, and containing shields. It stands at the west end of the north aisle.

In the immediate neighbourhood of the Church are several old houses, which seem to belong to the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries, and originally formed the village of West Bromwich, which at that period must have been a very inconsiderable place; but, from its situation near the main-road through the mining district, and the rapid increase of coal and iron works in its vicinity, it has become of considerable note; the whole of the distance between the Oak House and the Church being thickly covered with houses, among which are three new churches, several meeting-houses, and the other ordinary accompaniments of a modern town. Within about the distance of a mile, at a place where three lanes meet, is a wayside inn, bearing the sign of “The Stone Cross;” of the cross which formerly existed there, barely a trace is left.

Amongst the other timber houses in the immediate vicinity of Birmingham, there are but few remarkable for any peculiarity of construction; such as still exist have been in nearly all cases subjected to the “improvements” which destroy early and valuable character; perhaps the only exception is an old house, situated on the north side of the churchyard at Kingsnorton (a village in the county of Worcester), about five miles distant from Birmingham, which is still retained for the use of a Free School, founded there by King Edward VI., but which, from having a window at its east end, that clearly belongs to the decorated period of English architecture, was most probably used as a residence for the priest of the adjacent church. But although the neighbourhood is so deficient in good examples of ancient timber houses, there will be found several mansions worthy of observation; we need mention only the names of New Hall, near the little town of Sutton Coldfield; Castle Bromwich Hall, the seat of the Earl of Bradford, erected in 1580; the ancient Castle of Maxtoke, which remains, for the greater part, in good preservation; and the magnificent pile of Aston Hall--one of the finest and best preserved Halls yet existing in the Kingdom.

From a sketch by H.L. Prout. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.

THROWLEY HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE.]

THROWLEY HALL,

STAFFORDSHIRE.

Throwley Hall. In the North-East corner of the County of Stafford there exists an elevated region of limestone hills; one of which, the Bunster, rises to the height of twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea. Their scanty soil, pierced in many places by the naked rock, bears a rich verdure, which is cropped by numerous herds of cattle and sheep. The bottoms of the intervening valleys are occupied by clear streams, which dash along their stony beds, and give fertility to the various shrubs and trees growing upon their margins. In a concavity, about midway down one of these hills, stands the old Hall of Throwley. In the vale below, the superterranean or surface course of the river Manyfold winds its devious way. This stream, like its fellow, the Hamps, sinks into fissures of the rocks, and flows through caverns hid in the earth, for some miles, whilst the remaining portion of the waters, especially during floods, occupies the bed we have pointed out. The valley of the Manyfold, opposite Throwley Hall, is marked by an umbrageous wood, exhibiting a highly luxurious foliage of varied tints.

This picturesque spot, environed by the neighbouring hills of such great altitude, was chosen for the foundation of a house at a remote period. At the time of Erdeswick, we find him recounting that “Throwley is a fair, ancient house, and goodly demesne; being the seat of the Meverells, a very ancient house of gentlemen and of goodly living, equalling the best sort of gentlemen in the Shire.” In the fifth year of the reign of King John, Oliver de Meverell was settled here. In the second of Edward the First, Thomas de Meverell married Agnes, one of the five daughters and co-heirs of Gerebert de Gayton. In a deed given at Fredeswall, now Fradswell, another manor of the Meverells, in the seventeenth year of Edward the Third, we find the name of Thomas de Meverell, Lord of Throwley. The following inscription occurs on an alabaster monument in the south aisle of the chancel of Ilam Church, in which parish Throwley is situated:--“Here lyeth yᵉ bodies of Robert Meverell Esqvʳ & Eliz: his wife, Davghter

of Sʳ Tho: Fleming Kniᵗ & Lord Cheife Ivstice of yᵉ Kings Bench, by whō he had issve only one davghter, who maried Tho: Lord Cromwell, Visconte Lecaile; wᶜʰ Robert died yᵉ 5th of Febrʸ anᵒ 1626 & Elizabᵗʰ departed yᵉ 5th of Avgvst 1628.” Upon a slab are placed the effigies of this Robert, the last male of the Meverells, and Elizabeth his wife, in the magnificent ruffs and other costume of the period--the husband wearing a vast pair of boots with spurs on them, the former falling in thick wrinkles from the ankle to the knee, and terminating in a peak about the middle of the thigh. In a recess in the wall above is the kneeling figure of their daughter and heir, Lady Cromwell, wearing her coronet, and her four children by her. There are shields of arms emblazoning those of Meverell, viz., argent, a griffin segreant sable, armed gules, with the alliances enumerated; and above the tomb is suspended a helmet having a pointed visor. We are enabled to trace this heiress of the ancient House of Meverell to her last resting-place, for in the floor near the altar in Fradsivell Church is a flat stone, inscribed, “Dame Cromwell.” And on an old Tablet in the Chancel may still be read: “Iana Cromwellʳ: Ex nobilibus Familys Cromwellorum et Meverillorum.” 1647. From the family of Lord Cromwell, Viscount Lecaile, and first Earl of Ardglass, in Ireland, Throwley subsequently passed to Edward Southwell, the last Baron de Clifford; and was sold by him in 1790 to Samuel Crompton, Esq., whose son, Sir Samuel Crompton, Bart., of Wood End, near Thirsk, is now the proprietor of it. The Hall is occupied by a worthy family of the name of Phillips.

The “fair ancient house of Throwley” has undergone many mutations since the days of Erdeswick. It still, however, presents a diversity of outline which corresponds admirably with the imposing site it occupies. It is built of the limestone of the neighbourhood, quoined with larger gritstones; and its walls bear a very time-worn appearance. On the Eastern side, its gables, large bayed window of many lights, divided by stone mullions, terminating in depressed arches, and its strong square tower, carry us back to the Sixteenth Century--the period of its erection. Whether it was the work of Robert, the last male of the House of Meverell, or one of his predecessors, we are not enabled to ascertain by any positive evidence; yet there is little doubt the latter surmise is most correct. On the western side of the House there formerly stood a large Chapel, with a lofty ceiling to the roof; a stone of which, still preserved, bears the initials “F. M.”, most likely pointing to the founder of the entire structure. The little turret contains a circular stone stair, that conducts to the roof of the tower, the leads of which bear many a mark of visitors long since departed--most of them to an eternal home. The view here, as it takes in a large reach of the valley in both directions, and Castern on the opposite hill, is very fine. The principal entrance to the House of Throwley has been on the north, and leads first to a small Entrance-Hall, and next, to the great Hall; which in the strange transmutations it has undergone, retains only a portion of its wainscot and the massive beams of oak that support the ceiling. This Hall is lighted by the lower window in the large bay to the left of our litho-tint. A fine room of equal size, above, entered by a pair of oaken folding doors, has been richly finished, its ceiling still bearing a beading that has been gilt, disposed in an elegant device of octagons and stars. This chief apartment has had a large bay-window, containing two rows of six lights each, to the South, as well as the Eastern bay apparent in the engraving. All these windows are rendered secure by upright bars of iron, bearing cross-bars at short intervals. They have formerly contained some stained glass, the only remains of which, the arms of Lord Thomas Cromwell quartering the sable griffin segreant of the Meverells, are now placed in the neighbouring farm-house of Mr. Parramore. An upper wainscotted room in Throwley Hall still retains an appropriate memorial of its former lordly occupants in the armorial bearings of the House of Ardglass, elaborately carved in high relief in oak, now enriched by the tints of age, with the supporters, two fierce winged bulls. At a short distance behind the house stands a stately pile of ancient stabling, two lofty stories in height, topped with a high-pitched roof. The entrances are so tall, that we might conclude the lords and dames of other days had mounted their steeds before they issued to the chase or other amusements--among which we may presume that of falconry would be no infrequent pastime amid these wild hills.

Of the ancient owners, the Meverells, almost the only additional historical notice we can regain, is, that Arthur Meverell of Throwley was the last Prior of Sutbury. At the period of the Dissolution, A.D. 1538, he, together with eight monks, surrendered the Priory, with all its possessions, into the hands of Henry VIII.; the original deed still remaining in the Augmentation Office, with the signatures of the Prior and brotherhood, and the common seal of the Convent attached. In consideration of this surrender, Arthur, the Prior, had an annuity of fifty pounds.

Besides the remarkable natural phenomenon before alluded to, of the disappearance of the rivers Hamps and Manyfold in this vicinity, the vast caverns in the limestone rocks present to our notice objects of great interest. One of these, within a short distance of Throwley, has long been distinguished by the name of “Thor’s House.” Both rivers and caves are happily alluded to by the poet:--

“Still the nymphs emerging lift in air
Their snow-white shoulders and their azure hair;
Sail with sweet grace the dimpling streams along,
Listening the shepherd’s, or the miner’s song;
But when afar they view the giant cave,
On timorous fins they circle on the wave,
With streaming eyes, and throbbing hearts’ recoil,
Plunge their fair forms, and dive beneath the soil.”

By following the valley from Throwley about two miles, we reach the beautiful gardens of Ilam Hall, its ivy-covered Church, and the village itself. Passing over the chaste productions of modern art crowded into this graceful spot, which is equally marked as the opening, round the base of the mighty Bunster, of the most romantic portion of Dovedale, we can scarcely refrain from noticing, as we depart, the two fragments of ancient crosses, covered with sculpture forming rude devices, in the churchyard; the curiously-figured Norman font; and the plain but handsome altar-tomb in the Church, which is pierced at the sides with large quatrefoils, and bears the designation of “Bartram’s Tomb.” This latter attracted Dr. Plot’s attention, who referred it to St. Bertelline. He was the son of a king, and a hermit, who is related to have lived on an island where the present town of Stafford is situated, till he was disturbed, when he removed into some desert mountainous place, where he ended his life. Plot has concentrated--

“Tradition’s dubious light,
That hovers ’twixt the day and night,
Dazzling, alternately, and dim,--”

upon the wild hills and dells which abound round Throwley, Ilam, and Dovedale. He enumerates, as corroborative testimony, this tomb, which he considers may have been renewed,--as undoubtedly it must have been if it have reference to the legend; a well, and an ash tree near it, on the western side of Bunster, towards the base;--all of them being then and still popularly appropriated to St. Bertram. St. Bertram’s ash has been cut down in the memory of many living in the village; whilst the water of St. Bertram’s Well, “clear as diamond-spark,” still rills out of the base of the mighty hill.

From a drawing by W. F. Hulme. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.

TRENTHAM HALL, STAFFORDSHIRE.]

TRENTHAM HALL,

STAFFORDSHIRE.

Trentham, the home or settlement on the Trent, has been a village since the days of the Saxons, who adopted this fertile nook on the banks of a beautiful stream as a fit abode for man. Here, in this well-selected spot, they were led by their religious impulses to found an Abbey, over which presided no less a personage than Werburg, daughter of the ferocious Wulphere, king of Mercia, whose palace was hard by, at Berry-Bank, and whose wicked murder of his two sons, Wulfard and Rufin, on suspicion of their conversion to Christianity, was perpetrated at Bursson and at Stone, where subsequently religious houses were erected as memorials of their martyrdom. St. Werburg, for she was canonized, and was, moreover, sister to King Ethelred, died at Trentham or at Hanbury, in the year 683, was buried at the latter place, and her body was in the year 875 removed to Chester Cathedral, where the rich decorated stone case of her shrine now forms the bishop’s throne. Of the Saxon abbey of Trentham no records remain; of its “ancient glories” there exists not a trace.

In the time of King Stephen,

Ranulph, the second of the great Earls of Chester who bore that name, refounded the monastery of Trentham for canons of St. Augustine. In the present church, which closely adjoins to Trentham Hall, and which, by the munificence of the Duke of Sutherland, has been within these three or four years carefully and judiciously restored in every part, under the charge of Mr. Barry, we have still some slight but interesting remains, reaching back nearly to the time of its foundation. These consist of the tall, round, Norman piers of the nave, with their quaint capitals, and the bold and lofty pointed arches to which they give support.

The appended woodcut exhibits the interior of the church--the screen, of carved oak, being one of very considerable beauty.

At the Dissolution, the Monastery had only seven religious, and was granted by King Henry VIII. in 1539, to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. It afterwards came into the possession of the Levesons, a Staffordshire family of great antiquity, seated at Willenhall. Nicholas Leveson, lord-mayor of London, died in the year that Trentham was granted to the Duke of Suffolk. His great-grandson, Sir John Leveson, left two daughters only, co-heiresses; one of whom, Frances, by marrying Sir Thomas Gower of Sittenham, carried Trentham and other extensive possessions into this ancient Yorkshire family, which dates from the Conquest. Sir John Leveson-Gower was elevated to the peerage in 1702-3, as Baron Gower of Sittenham. His son John, the second Baron, was constituted Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, and was repeatedly one of the Lords of the Regency during the absences of George II. on the Continent. In 1746 he was created Viscount Trentham of Trentham, and Earl Gower. He died in 1755, and was buried at Trentham. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Granville, the second Earl, who was Member of Parliament for the city of Westminster. On the occasion of his appointment as one of the Lords of the Admiralty, his re-election was strongly opposed by Sir George Vanderput, who was defeated by a small majority. In consequence, a scrutiny ensued; and there occurred several riotous proceedings recorded in the journals of the time. He filled the high offices of Lord Privy Seal, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord President of the Council. He was installed Knight of the Garter, and created Marquis of Stafford in 1786. His eldest son, George Granville, also a Knight of the Garter, married the late estimable Countess of Sutherland in her own right, and was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. This peerage, according to some of the Scottish writers, is the most ancient of any in North Britain. The Duke did not long survive to enjoy his new dignity, but died in the same year, carrying with him the sincere regret of his numerous tenantry. The latter, to testify their respect for His Grace’s memory, commissioned Sir Francis Chantrey to execute a colossal statue of their noble landlord, which occupies a neighbouring height of great elevation, immediately in front of Trentham Hall across the lake, and forms a very conspicuous object in the surrounding scenery. Of the present noble possessor of the title, George-Granville-Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the second Duke of his family, it will not be necessary to add much. After sitting in the Commons for Staffordshire, he was summoned to the House of Peers in the lifetime of his father, as Earl Gower, and is distinguished for the gracious dignity with which, during the whole of his career, he has sustained the honours of so many ancient and noble families, concentrated, as it were, in his own person.

To the Levesons we may be allowed to recur. Sir Richard Leveson was distinguished as a naval commander. He is considered to be the subject of that fine old plaintive ballad, “The Spanish Lady’s Love,” which relates the woes of a captive maid, “by birth and parentage of high degree,” at being about to be separated for ever from her detainer--

“Full woe is me,
O let me still sustain this kind captivity!

* * * * *

My heart in prison still remains with thee!”

for he accompanied the Earl of Nottingham, in 1596, in his expedition against Cadiz, when he was twenty-seven years of age. He was married to the daughter of this famous Earl, who was the Lord High Admiral and Commander in Chief of the English fleet which defeated the so called “invincible” Spanish Armada. Sir Richard Leveson, who was in this engagement as well as many others, in 1601 was made Vice-Admiral, and died early in life in 1605. In the Collegiate Church at Wolverhampton a noble bronze statue, richly gilt, supported by a stately monument in black marble, was erected to his memory; by which were two brass plates, the one inscribed with the chief events of his life, registered at length in Latin, terminating in these words--“E vita pie discessit

sine prole, sed non sine magno multorum luctu, auro dignus, ære contentus;” and the other in English. He was succeeded by Sir Richard Leveson of Trentham, Knight of the Bath, who erected this splendid memorial to the Admiral’s fame. It was executed by Le Sueur for 300_l._, and the original contract in French is still preserved at Trentham. During the contest between Royalty and the Parliament, this bronze effigy was ordered by the Committee of Sequestrations at Stafford to be taken away and cast into cannon; but by the timely interposition of Lady Leveson, the Admiral’s widow, it was redeemed for a sum of money, and deposited in Lilleshall Church till the strife was over. The marble monument being destroyed, it now occupies a niche in the church at Wolverhampton. A copy of the effigy is placed in a recess in the court-yard at Trentham Hall of which we give an illustration.

The above Sir Richard Leveson, Knight of the Bath, was member of parliament for the county of Salop, and afterwards for Newcastle-under-Lyme, and was devoted to the cause of Charles I. He made his residence at Trentham, “being accounted one of the best house-keepers and landlords in the county.” In consequence of his adherence to the royal cause, his property was sequestrated, for which he compounded by the payment of more than 6000_l._, the largest composition obtained. There remains a letter from him to the Governor of Shrewsbury, which strikingly indicates the distresses sustained, by persons of distinction even, during those troubled times:--

“Sʳ,

“Since the unhappy surprise of Stafford by the rebelles, the place
where I am is not safe, either for myself or my goodes, and
therefore I have sent 2 wagons loaded with some household stuffe,
which I desire, with your dispensac’on, may bee received into your
towne of Shrewsbury, into a roome which I have longe reserved in
myne owne handes for this purpose against a tyme of neede; and that
to this effecte you will please to give order unto your watch for
free passage to and fro, whereby you will oblige mee more and more
to remayne

“Yoʳ ever affectionate frende,
“R. LEVESON.”

“Lilleshall Lodge, 16 May, 1643.

“_To my muche respected frende, Sʳ Francis Oteley, Kt. Governour of
Shrewsburye. Haste these._”

Sir Richard Leveson built the old hall at Trentham in 1633, two views of which are given in Dr. Plot’s singular “Natural History of Staffordshire.” He died in 1661. His widow, Lady Catherine Leveson, was a great benefactress to the parish, and died at Trentham in 1678.

The present Hall, previous to the recent most happy and successful “transformation” under the direction of Mr. Barry, was built on the model of Buckingham House, in St. James’s Park. It has now become, by the addition of the semicircular colonnade, rich carriage porch surmounted by the ducal arms, and baronial tower, an imposing and stately mansion, enriched with much diversity of outline.

A massy structure near the Hall was erected by the late Marquis of Stafford as a family mausoleum, in the Egyptian style; the grounds around it being planted with various species of yew and other sombre plants, of a lofty, pointed, and pyramidal form. The ponderous architecture, the deeply-tinted foliage and heavenward aspect of the evergreens, form most appropriate emblems, both of human frailty and of the brighter hopes of the Christian.

The park is marked by the unrestrained native beauties of the neighbouring wood of oaks, “wild above rule or art,” and by the river Trent expanding into a goodly lake:--

“A gentle stream,
Adown the vale its serpent courses winds,
Seen here and there through breaks of trees to gleam,
Gilding their dancing boughs with noon’s reflected beam.”

From a drawing by J. D. Harding. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.

HELMINGHAM HALL, SUFFOLK.]

HELMINGHAM HALL,

SUFFOLK.

Helmingham Hall may be classed among the most remarkable and interesting edifices in the Kingdom; for, although it has undergone many changes, and been subjected to a variety of “improvements,” the leading characteristics of the ancient structure are retained; it still exhibits a connecting link between the strong castles of the old Barons, and the embattled mansions which succeeded them. The Hall is distant about eight miles from the venerable town of Ipswich. The Park contains about five hundred acres, and is largely stocked with deer. The Entrance-gate--which forms the initial letter to this Chapter--is placed between two Lodges--modern, but in admirable keeping with the old House. An Avenue, arched by magnificently grown trees, conducts to the South

Front of the Mansion; in which is the principal Entrance, approached by a Bridge thrown across the Moat. The Moat encompasses the building; which is surrounded also by a Terrace. Both are kept in excellent repair; and the former is well supplied with fish. The Drawbridges are maintained in all their primitive formality, and are, we understand, even to this day, raised every night. The appended print exhibits the picturesque interior of one of the two “Gate-houses,” in which these ancient appendages still remain,--showing also the rude machinery by which it was elevated or depressed. It is an object now very rarely encountered: one of the most impressive records of “the state” (using the term in its double sense) in which our ancestors lived--keeping perpetual watch and ward. All praise be to the existing Lord of this Mansion, who has taken especial care to prevent Time from destroying so peculiar a relic of a remote age. The present representative of the Tollemaches--John Tollemache, Esq.--has indeed manifested continual zeal to protect from injury the seat of his ancestors--restoring with judgment, skill, and taste, where injuries have resulted from years, but so as in no

degree to impair its original character; neither adding to, nor taking from, its early and “fair” proportions.

Notwithstanding these solemn tokens of gone-by days, so intimately associated with times of peril, the external appearance of the building is peculiarly light and graceful--a character which it derives, chiefly, from four large Bay Windows, with projecting cornices and embattled parapets; Gables profusely ornamented with richly wrought finials; and a multiplicity of Chimneys similarly enriched, with reticulated and indented mouldings. The structure is quadrangular. The Courtyard, with its several dependent buildings, has been restored with remarkably good taste and imposing effect. The Eastern Entrance to these buildings is here pictured. Crossing this Court, the Hall is reached[34]; the State Apartments are limited to the Western Front. They have been arranged with greater care to comfort than to Baronial grandeur; due attention has been paid, however, to the “furnishing,” and the taste of the Tudor age harmoniously prevails throughout the Mansion. Until very lately, the Hall had been completely deserted by the family, and was rapidly falling to decay. When it became the residence of the present proprietor, it was completely renovated; the Garden or West Front, which had become dilapidated, having been entirely rebuilt. The Hall and several of the Apartments are adorned with Portraits of the ancient and noble Family; among them are some fine paintings by Lely, Kneller, and Reynolds.

A relic of exceeding interest is contained in one of the rooms. It is the Lute which Queen Elizabeth presented to an infant scion

of the House, to whom her Majesty stood Godmother. It has the date,--1580,--and the inscription, “Cymbalum Deca chordon.” It is preserved in a glass-case, which also encloses a variety of rare and curious coins; and in the same chamber is a spinette--believed to have been once the property of the Virgin Queen.

The very ancient Family of Tollemache resided for many generations at Bentley in Suffolk. In their old Manor House there was “to be seen until lately,” (within the present century, perhaps), the following inscription:--

When William the Conqueror reigned with great fame,
Bently was my seat, and Tollemache was my name.