Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present Part 6

[22] From Poundbury may be seen Woolverton House, formerly the seat of the Trenchard family, and in it the fortunes of the House of Russell, humanly speaking, began to rise in the ascendant. When the Archduke of Spain was obliged to land at Weymouth, he was brought to the Sheriff of Dorset, and lived at Woolverton House. The Sheriff, not being able to speak in any language but "Dorset," found it difficult to converse with the Archduke, and bethought him of a young kinsman, named Russell, who had been a factor in Spain, and sent for him. The young man made himself so agreeable to the Archduke that he brought him to London, where the King took a fancy to him, and in time he became Duke of Bedford, and was the founder of the House of Russell.

[23] The Roman bricks in the remains of a villa found at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, were fresh and sound.

[24] The uses of these openings are, however, much controverted by antiquarian writers:--"With regard to the holes made in the archways of the gates as found both at Windsor and the Tower of London, the most probable theory of their use is that they were formed, not as is generally supposed, for the purpose of throwing down burning sand and other corroding substances on the a.s.sailants of the castle, but to pour down water on any fires which the enemy might make with f.a.ggots or other materials before the gate and portcullis."--_J. H. Parker_, F.S.A.

[25] _A Visitation of Seats and Arms._ By John Bernard Burke, Esq. Vol.

i. p. 64.

[26] _Quarterly Review._

[27] Charles Knight; _Penny Cyclopaedia, sub_ Windsor Castle.

[28] Surrey's _Poems_.

[29] _History of Bremhill._

[30] This window is by Buckler, after a design of Lonsdale; in it are portraits of Charles, Duke of Norfolk, as Baron Fitz-Walter; Captain Morris, as Master of the Knights Templar; Henry Howard, jun. as the Baron's Page; and H. C. Combe, Esq. as Lord Mayor of London.

[31] _Quarterly Review_, July, 1862. The twelfth Duke died in 1842, the thirteenth in 1856, and the fourteenth in 1860. The present Duke, the fifteenth, succeeded at the age of thirteen.

III. Household Antiquities.

THE OLD ENGLISH HOUSE.

Hitherto we have but glanced at the earlier periods of what may be termed Domestic Life in England. We have attempted to trace our British ancestors in their "woods and caves, and painted skins;" in their rude state, before the Roman colonization; in their advancement under that enlightened sway; and their decadence after their conquerors had left them. To these periods have succeeded the ages of Castle-building, when edifices were built for purposes of defence. In lawless times, might lorded it over right, and stronger places of abode than we regard a _house_ were necessary for the security and protection of the inhabitants. Throughout these periods we have few evidences, from their dwellings, of how the _people_ lived: from the earth caverns of the Early Britons to the Roman civilization is a dreary picture of rude accommodation; and though the excavation of ancient sites, and the operation of the plough, may bring to light many a splendid pavement and appliances, which denote luxurious life,--these are the remains of the embellished villas of the wealthy Roman, and not of the abodes of the conquered Briton. The Saxons lived so meanly, that it were vain to expect to find many traces of their dwellings; and of the Danes there are still fewer remains. With these exceptions we have, before the Conquest, no actually existing witnesses.

With the Norman period our series of evidences begins. For some time after the Conquest, strictly domestic remains are very scanty. The great men lived in castles, which are, indeed, domestic so far as men lived in them, but whose architecture is too much affected by military considerations to be called strictly domestic architecture, which is the building of _houses_, whose defence is either not thought of or is something quite secondary. It is clear that houses of this sort, of such pretensions as to possess any architectural character, or to be preserved down to our time, could not well exist, in the open country at least, till the land had become comparatively settled and civilized.

Hence, our list of Norman houses in England is very scanty, and they are chiefly formed in walled towers, like Lincoln and Bury St. Edmund's.

[The erection of Lincoln Castle by order of William the Conqueror, in 1086, is said to have caused the demolition of 240 houses. Perhaps the only perfect and untouched Norman example is the small unroofed house at Christ Church, in Hamps.h.i.+re. The church is Norman, and the tower is supposed to be of Roman origin.]

Several of the fragments elsewhere have very fine Norman detail; but for Norman architecture exhibiting anything like the real grandeur of the style, we must look to the castles and monasteries. In the thirteenth century our examples are still but few and small, though much more numerous than before. After the age of Edward III. the castle became more like a mansion, as we have seen in the castles of Windsor, Warwick, and Kenilworth.

As the character of the times became more peaceful, and law succeeded to the reign of the strong hand, a still further change took place in the construction of these dwellings, and they partook but slightly of the castellated character. Beauty and ornament were consulted by the builders instead of strength; and the convenient accommodation of the in-dwellers, in lieu of the means of disposing of a crowded garrison, and its necessary provision in time of siege. They usually retained the moat and battlemented gateway, and one or two strong turrets, to build which a royal licence was necessary. Thus, the idea of the English manor-house seems to have disengaged itself from that of the castle, and we begin to have a n.o.ble series of strictly domestic buildings, defence being quite secondary, and in no way obtruded. They were generally quadrangular in plan, the larger cla.s.s inclosing two open courts, of which one contained the stables, offices, and lodgings of the household; the second, the princ.i.p.al or statechambers, with the hall and chapel.

The windows were large and lofty, reaching almost to the ground, and several of them opening to the gardens on the outside of the building, though these were inclosed by high battlemented walls and a moat. It should, however, be remarked, that the mansion, except in edifices of considerable extent and consequence, seldom contained more than one court.

The hall, in most cases, retained its original design. It was distinguished by its superior elevation, its turreted towers (or lantern), its windows, and projecting bay. The princ.i.p.al doorway entered upon a vestibule or lobby, extending across the edifice, with a door of inferior dimensions at the opposite extremity, having, on one side, the lower wall of the hall, in which were doors leading to the b.u.t.tery and kitchener's department; and on the other, the screen, or lofty part.i.tion of wood, designed to conceal those doors from the view of persons in the hall. In the Companies' Halls of the City of London, a moveable screen is generally used for this purpose.

The screen was often panelled with wood from top to bottom, and divided into compartments, which were enriched with s.h.i.+elds and carved work, having usually two or three arched doorways opening on the lobby. In many instances, the minstrels' gallery was placed above this compartment.

Among the richest specimens extant of the embattled mansions are Wingfield Manor-house, in Derbys.h.i.+re; Cowdray, in Suss.e.x;[32] Kelmingham Hall, in Suffolk; Penshurst, in Kent; Deene Park, in Northamptons.h.i.+re; and Thornbury Castle, in Gloucesters.h.i.+re. This period of the transition from the castle to the mansion is considered the best style of English architecture.

Wingfield, near the centre of Derbys.h.i.+re, was built by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, who, in the time of Henry VI. was Treasurer of England, in allusion to which he had bags or purses of stones carved over the gateway of Wingfield, as well as on the manor-house of Coly Weston, in Northamptons.h.i.+re, augmented by this Lord Cromwell. Wingfield Manor-house originally consisted of two square courts--one containing the princ.i.p.al apartments, and the other the offices. It had a n.o.ble hall lighted by a beautiful octagon window, and a range of Gothic windows, north and south. The princ.i.p.al entrance is by an embattled gate-house, through a pointed arch, beside the end of the great state apartment lighted by a large and rich pointed window. Here the Earl of Shrewsbury held in his custody Mary Queen of Scots, in a convenient suite of apartments, which communicated with the great tower, whence the ill-starred captive could see her friends with whom she held a secret correspondence. An attempt was made by Leonard Dacre to rescue Mary, after which Elizabeth, becoming suspicious of the Earl of Shrewsbury, directed the Lady Huntingdon to take care of the Queen of Scots in Shrewsbury's house; and had her suite reduced to thirty persons. Her captivity at Wingfield is stated to have extended to nine years, which, however, is questionable.

Thornbury Castle is picturesquely placed twenty-four miles south-west of Gloucester, on the banks of a rivulet two miles westward of "the glittering, red, and rapid Severn, embedded in its emerald vale, and s.h.i.+ning up in splendid contrast to the shady hills of the Dean Forest."

Thornbury was begun by Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; its completion was prevented by his execution, in the year 1522. It is a castellated group, with battlemented towers and turrets, and enriched chimney-shafts, clothed with luxuriant ivy; its bay-windows are very fine. Buckingham fell one of the earliest victims to the cruel tyranny of our eighth Henry. The line of his pedigree is marked in blood. His father was beheaded by Richard III.; his grandfather was killed at the battle of St. Albans; his great grandfather at the battle of Northampton; and the father of this latter at the battle of Shrewsbury.

More than a century had elapsed since any chief of this great family had fallen by a natural death. Edward was doomed to no n.o.bler fate than his forefathers. Knivett, a discarded officer of Buckingham's household, furnished information to Wolsey, which led to the apprehension of his late master: it was stated that he had consulted a monk about future events; that he had declared all the acts of Henry VII. to be wrongfully done; that he had told Knivett, that if he had been sent to the Tower, when he was in danger of being committed, he would have played the part which his father had intended to perform at Salisbury--where, if he could have obtained an audience, he would have stabbed Richard III. with a knife; and that he had told Lord Abergavenny, if the king had died, he would have the rule of the land. Yet, all this was but the testimony of a spy. Buckingham confessed the real amount of his absurd inquiries from the friar. He was tried in the court of the Lord High Steward, by a jury of one duke, one marquess, seven earls, and twelve barons, who convicted him. The Duke of Norfolk shed tears on p.r.o.nouncing sentence. The prisoner said: "May the eternal G.o.d forgive you my death, as I do." The only favour which he could obtain was, that the ignominious part of a traitor's death should be remitted. He was accordingly beheaded on the 17th of May, 1521; whilst the surrounding people vented their indignation against Wolsey by loud cries of "The butcher's son!" The half-built and decaying Thornbury has prompted this saddening history of its founder and his ill-fated family.

Longleat, in Wilts.h.i.+re, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, and built in the reign of Edward VI., is, for its date, esteemed the most regular building in the kingdom. Upon its site was originally a priory, which came into the possession of the Thynne family, in the reign of Henry VIII. The present mansion was commenced by the first proprietor of that family, and completed for his successors by an Italian architect: it consists of three stories, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, adorned with rich pilasters, handsome bal.u.s.trades, and statues; and from the roof rise several cupolas. The apartments are large and sumptuous; and the great hall is two stories in height. The gardens were originally embellished with fountains, cascades, and statues, and laid out in formal parterres; but the whole has been newly remodelled. The entire domain is fifteen miles in circuit; and in magnitude, grandeur, and variety of decoration, Longleat has always been the pride of this part of the country. Its collection of pictures includes many portraits of eminent persons in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and her successors.

In the time of Elizabeth and James I. were erected many mansions upon splendid and extensive scales. John Thorpe built five palaces for Elizabeth's ministers: for Lord Burghley, Theobalds and Burghley; Wimbledon, for Sir Robert Cecil; Hollenby and Kirby, for Lord Chancellor Hatton; and Buckhurst for the Earl of Dorset. Thorpe also built for Sir Walter Cope, Holland House, Kensington, about 1606, which received its name from Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, by whom the mansion was greatly altered. Its plan is that of half the letter H, of deep red brick, with pilasters and their entablature; the window dressings, and coping, of stone. Few of the apartments retain their original character; some of the interior is supposed to be by Inigo Jones. The gilt room is by Cleyn, an artist largely employed by James I. and Charles I.; the figures over the fireplace are worthy of Parmegiano, and here is a very fine collection of modern busts.

Burghley, Northamptons.h.i.+re, has the rare fortune of remaining to this time the seat of the descendants of the great Lord Burghley, for whom the mansion was built; the present n.o.ble owner being the Marquis of Exeter: in approaching it from Stamford, its singular chimneys, the variety of its turrets, towers, and cupolas, and the steeple of its chapel rising from its centre, give it the appearance more of a small city than a single building.

Hatfield, in Hertfords.h.i.+re, which has been a palace, episcopal, royal, and n.o.ble, for upwards of seven centuries, was mostly built by Thorpe, in 1611. The old palace was of the twelfth century: here is the chamber in which the Princess Elizabeth was kept for some time a state prisoner; and in the present mansion, Charles I. was confined. In plan, Hatfield is in the form of half the letter H: each front differs from the other, but in unity of design the Tudor period is remarkably prevalent, and it is believed that no house in the kingdom erected at so early a date, remains so entire as this.

A stately mansion of this period was erected at Campden, in Gloucesters.h.i.+re, at an expense of 29,000_l_.; it occupied eight acres, was of splendid architecture, and had a large dome rising from the roof, which was illuminated nightly for the guidance of travellers. Campden was burnt during the Civil War.

Haddon Hall, near Bakewell, in Derbys.h.i.+re, erected at various periods, affords excellent examples of the several styles of domestic architecture, from the early pointed, to the Tudor and Elizabethan. It was originally a barton, or farm, given by William the Conqueror to his natural son, William Peverell. The mansion is preserved intact: the tapestry and paneling remain; the carved wainscoting and ornamented ceiling of the long gallery are of the time of Elizabeth; the banqueting-hall is equally perfect; the chapel is a good specimen of the early Pointed Gothic. Haddon is one of the curiosities of the Peak country. Many years since Mr. Reinagle painted a picture of this famous old place, which evoked the following poetical tribute to its truthfulness:--

"Gre weeds o'ertop thy ruin'd wall, Grey, venerable Haddon Hall; The swallow twitters through thee: Who would have thought, when, in their pride, Thy battlements the storm defied, That Time should thus subdue thee?

"While with a famed and far renown England's third Edward wore the crown, Up sprang'st thou in thy glory; And surely thine (if thou couldst tell, Like the old Delphian Oracle) Would be a wondrous story.

"How many a Vernon thou hast seen, Kings of the Peak thy walls within; How many a maiden tender; How many a warrior stem and steel'd, In burganet, and lance, and s.h.i.+eld, Array'd with martial splendour.

"Then, as the soft autumnal breeze Just curl'd the lake, just stirr'd the trees, In the blue cloudless weather, How many a gallant hunting train, With hawk in hood, and horse in rein, Forsook thy courts together!

"The grandeur of the olden time Mounted thy towers with pride sublime, Enlivening all who near'd them; From Hippocras and Sherris sack Palmer or pilgrim turn'd not back Before thy cellars cheer'd them.

"Since thine unbroken early day, How many a race hath pa.s.s'd away, In charnel vault to moulder-- Yet Nature round thee breathes an air Serenely bright, and softly fair, To charm the awed beholder.

"The past is but a gorgeous dream, And Time glides by us like a stream, While musing on thy story; And sorrow prompts a deep alas!

That, like a pageant thus, should pa.s.s To wreck all human glory."

It is now time to speak more in detail of the main apartment--the chief feature of an ancient residence of every cla.s.s--the Great Hall, which often gave its name to the whole house. A very able writer has thus lucidly yet briefly told its history:--"In the early houses, the hall is almost the whole house; there is nothing besides, except the requisite offices and a room or two for the lord and the lady. The ma.s.s of the household slept how they might in the hall. Gradually, as civilization increased, the accommodation in a house became greater, and the relative importance--sometimes the positive size--of the Hall gradually diminishes. The family gradually deserted it, and the modern luxury of the dining-room was introduced. The _with_drawing-room, that into which they withdrew from the hall, had already appeared. At last, in the sixteenth century, the Hall, though still a grand feature, became, as now, a mere entrance, often with rooms over it."

Sometimes, the Great Hall was raised upon an undercroft of stone vaulting, as we see in the Guildhall, the undercroft of which is the finest specimen of its cla.s.s in the metropolis. Gerard's Hall, in Basing-lane, built by John Gisors, pepperer, Mayor of London in 1245, and is described by Stow as "a great house of old time, builded upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Cane, in Normandy."

Aubrey, writing in the seventeenth century, thus describes, in his quaint way, the characteristics of the old manorial or hall houses of the times of the Plantagenets and Tudors: "The architecture of an old English gentleman's house (especially in Wilts.h.i.+re and thereabouts) was a high strong wall, a gate-house, a Great Hall, and parlours, and within the little green court, where you come in, stood on one side the _barne_. _They then thought not the noise of the threshold ill musique._"

To come to details. The Great Hall corresponded to the refectory of the abbey. The princ.i.p.al entrance to the main building, from the front or outer court, opened into a _thorough lobby_, having on one side several doors or arches, leading to the b.u.t.tery,[33] kitchen, and domestic offices; on the other side, the Hall, parted off by a screen, generally of wood, elaborately carved, and enriched with s.h.i.+elds and a variety of ornaments, and pierced with several arches, having folding-doors. Above the screen, and over the lobby, was the minstrels' gallery; on its front were usually hung armour, antlers, and similar memorials of the family exploits.

The Hall itself was a large and lofty room, in the shape of a parallelogram; the roof, the timbers of which were framed with pendants, generally richly carved and emblazoned with arms, formed one of the most striking features. "The top beam of the Hall," in allusion to the position of his coat-of-arms, was a symbolical manner of drinking the health of the master of the house. At the upper end of the apartment, furthest from the entrance, the floor was usually raised a step, and this part was styled the _das_, or high place. On one side of the das was a deep embayed window, reaching nearly down to the floor; the other windows ranged along one or both sides of the Hall, at some height above the ground, so as to leave room for wainscoting, or arras, below them.

We see this arrangement to great advantage in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, where the wall beneath the windows is hung with Flemish tapestry, in eight compartments, the arabesque borders of which are very beautiful; the subject is the History of Abraham. The tapestry at the entrance of the Hall is of much earlier date, being in the school of Albert Durer: the subject, Justice and Mercy pleading before Kings or Judges. The withdrawing-room is also hung with tapestry, the subjects mostly mythological; and the oriel-window is filled with armorial stained gla.s.s.

The Hall windows generally were enriched with stained gla.s.s, representing the armorial bearings of the family, their connexions, and royal patrons; and between the windows were hung full-length portraits of the same persons. The windows were not, however, permanently glazed till the fifteenth century. Before that, it was the custom for the glazed cas.e.m.e.nts to be carried about from manor to manor along with the other furniture; every man of rank, whether civil or ecclesiastical, was in the habit of travelling with all his retinue, from one estate to another, so as to consume the produce of each estate upon the spot. It is this custom, or rather necessity, which explains the mult.i.tude of manorial houses possessed by every mediaeval magnate, and the constant migrations from one to the other. Royal writs and doc.u.ments are frequently dated from the most insignificant places where the court, on its progress from one royal manor to another, might happen to be staying.[34]

To return to the Hall. The Royal arms usually occupied a conspicuous station at either end of the room. The head-table was laid for the lord and princ.i.p.al guests on the raised place, parallel with the upper end wall; and other tables were ranged along the sides for inferior visitors and retainers. Tables, thus placed, were said to stand _banquet-wise_.

In the centre of the Hall was the rere-dosse, or fire-iron, against which f.a.gots were piled, and burnt upon the stone floor, the smoke pa.s.sing through an aperture in the roof immediately overhead, which was generally formed into an elevated lantern, a conspicuous ornament to the exterior of the building. In later times, a wide-arched fireplace was formed in the wall on one side of the room.

The Halls, in fact, of our colleges, at either University, and the Inns of Court, still remain as in Aubrey's time, accurate examples of the ancient and baronial and conventual Halls: preserving not merely their original form and appearance, but the identical arrangement and service of the table. Even the central fire has been, in some instances, kept up, being of charcoal, burnt in a large braziere, in lieu of the rere-dosse. The open fire was so kept up, at Westminster School, so late as 1850. The Halls of the temple, Gray's Inn, and Staple Inn, have their lanterns; and even the Hall of Barnard's Inn, the oldest and the smallest, has its lantern; the newly built Hall of Lincoln's Inn has a very ornamental one; and the new roof of the Guildhall is to have a lantern with a lofty spire. The lantern of Westminster Hall is large and picturesque; it is modern, of cast-iron, but is an exact copy of the original one, erected near the end of the fourteenth century. As the existing lanterns are no longer required for the egress of smoke, they are glazed.

In other respects, probably, little, if anything, has been altered since the Tudor era; and he who is anxious to know the mode in which our ancestors dined in the reigns of the Henrys and Edwards, may be gratified by attending that meal in the Great Halls of Christchurch or Trinity, and tasking his imagination to convert the princ.i.p.al and fellows at the upper table, into the stately baron, his family, and guests; and the gowned commoners at the side-tables, into the liveried retainers. The service of the kitchen, b.u.t.tery, and cellar is conducted, at the present day, precisely according to the ancient custom.[35]