,^ ; i«5) -]m)* mhmu " Men can no more knowe weoman's mynde by teares Than by her shaddowe judge the clothes she weares " ONE of the many wise sayings with which this house of carved legends, Moreton Old Hall, is decorated. We must remember, however, that a "weo- man's " shadow was a very different shape in Elizabethan days, when the rhyme was carved, to what it is to-day. Then perhaps it might have been difficult to judge from her shadow the clothes " she weares." Now, alas, her shadow often tells us ... . which, my wife reminds me, has nothing what- e^'er to do with old Manor houses ! I always feel that this legend should have been written by the lord of the Manor of Shoyswell in Sussex, who left to his wife in his will in 1580, " the use and weringe of her weddinge ring during her lief and free liberty to bake and brewe 28 in the bake-house and brewhouse for her necessarie use, and to dry her clothes uppon the hedges and bushes about his Manor of Shoy swell." A gentleman who no doubt kept his good lady in her proper place during his lifetime. As Stokesay includes three distinct periods of architecture, so Moreton Old Hall is confined to one ; and is about as unlike the former in character and appearance as is possible. Here in Cheshire, we have that peaceful domestic character very strongly developed, which one generally associates with the name of Manor house, instead of the grim and heavy type as at Stokesay. Popularly called Moreton Old Hall, its real name is Little 29 mmuon^ mm)^ mumm nnm / !f*k^ Moreton Hall, its pedigree going back as far as the Conquest ; if only for that reason, we may class it as one of the aristocrats among Manor houses. Let us just glance at its story and the history of the Moreton family, who built the house and lived in it so long. The first record is of one Gralam de Lostock who lived at Moreton in the time of Henry III, and the rather uncommon name of Gralam appears constantly in the Moreton family pedigree at subsequent dates. A Richard de Moreton lived here in Edward II's reign, and his 30 (DH® ^ 003m)M'^ la(D)W0cg[j descendants until 1449, at which time Sir Richard de Moreton of Moreton is heard of fighting in the Wars of the Roses. Also, we have it on record that a William Moreton lived here in Henry VII's reign, his successor marrying a daughter of Sir Andrew Brereton of Brereton, the gentleman who had the celebrated law-suit with his neighbour, Thomas ^^^\C) Rode of Rode, to decide whether Rode of Rode or Brereton of Brereton " should sit highest in churche and foremost goo in procession " ; which important litigation cost both Rode of Rode and Brereton of Brereton a very considerable sum of money. All of which happened before the house we see to-day was built. In early Elizabethan times. Sir William Moreton built our Little Moreton Hall, or rather the first part of it : U^Q 31 mSMUOM * ©M® * MIBMM MOAT and then as various members of the family came into the property they each added a room or wing until the house was finished, forming as it did originally the complete four sides of a quadrangle like Ightham 32 OHIO) ^ mrnmBM'^ xacDiiii Mote House and similar buildings. Indeed the ^#r process of development being very similar to that '^^ ot Ightham. Mr. Richard Dale the " carpeder " (with the cold in his head) has dated his window MDLXI and various other people (including, I am sorry to say, a gentleman from Lancashire who was at Moreton in 1922) have recorded the dates of their visit on the woodwork and glass of the building — the staunch old Tory, Mr. Henry Mainwaringe, scratching on one of the windows in 1627, "All change I scorne." 33 m€m<^.€)U^ dPJH]®* MWMM HS^I) I wonder if he was a relation of our Sir George Mainwaringe who bought Stokesay in 1570 from the Vernons ? Little Margaret Moreton dated her signature on August 3rd, 1649. 34 (DH© ^ 003W)m'^ B(Q)I00cg^ More and more Moretons lived at Moreton Litde Hall until 1762, when the direct male line terminated in a Recorder of the City of London, Sir William Moreton, Knight, who was followed by his nephew, the Reverend Richard Taylor, of West Dean in the County of Sussex, who took the name of More- ton. His descen- dants continued owners of the house until the death of Miss Elizabeth Moreton, a few years ago, when the property was left to the Right Reverend C. D. Abraham, D.D., Lord Bishop of Derby, the present owner. That, roughly, is a sketch of its story. Besides the dates recorded in carving and cut 35 (um^^n^mm)^ wssmu on windows, we have many architectural land- marks which give definite date to portions of the building, but it is probable that the great hall and buildings on the south side were built first— with the gate-house portion— and that the other parts were added at a slightly later date. It has been definitely settled by the *' com- petent architectural authority" that the greater part of the house was built about the year 1540, all previous references in its genea- logical tree relating to a building standing upon the same site. Four miles from Moreton is the town of Congleton, known to all north countrymen by the rhyme : Congleton rare, Congleton rare. Sold their bible to pay for a bear, 36 which, I believe, refers to the Mayor and Corporation — about the time Moreton Old Hall was built — disposing of the town hall bible, or rather, collecting money for a town hall bible, and using it to buy a bear for baiting purposes instead. A truly inexcusable thing to do. But Congletonians have a very great admiration and reverence for their old house of Moreton, and this, notwithstanding the slur upon their character of the unfortunate bear incident, at once gave me a great liking for them. Those I met at my inn were the descendants of the "wisket makers, jersey combers, mugmen, moldthrowers, towdressers, aledrapers and galloon weavers, and broaches-makers," recorded in the archives of Astbury Church in the Manor of Moreton, trades which were carried on in the village of Astbury and town of Congleton ; and n .^^s^ ■:f^< ^ ©15 ^ (a(n)M(&'MBn€)n 37 all these gentlemen without exception to-day are proud to have Moreton Old Hall to show the visitors to their town. One enthusiast — he was not a "towdresser," "galloon weaver," or "broaches-maker," but an ordinary, or I might say extraordinary, butcher- showed me an old book he had just purchased for two guineas, because he had heard it contained some reference to, and particulars of, his beloved Moreton Old Hall. Moreton is the Congletonians' "baby," and, like every other baby in existence, is considered by its parents the finest that was ever made. Although we must make allowances for the ecstasies of parents and guardians, it is one of the most beautiful old houses we have, of what is usually known as the " Magpie " type, so typical of Cheshire and Lancashire. 'The house itself is to-day but three sides of a quadrangle, and is completely surrounded by a moat ; but I do not think it ever had a defensive drawbridge entrance. The old stone bridge now spanning the moat is probably 38 OH® ^ mjssm)^'^ lacoiDfi ^ '■^■f ^v ■* ,**«W3»; i.->*'v^'4'fe«^*^'^ 0^ y -^ 4 t! %f^ BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF MORETOX OLD HAI,!.. 39 mmsMuoM^ ©iHS)^ mmsm the original one that was built with the present house. Once inside the courtyard, we expect to see Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers, or perhaps only one of the Moretons of that period, step from under the window carved by " Richard Dale, carpeder," the previously mentioned gentleman with the cold ; but when failing to meet an Elizabethan squire and his wife, we meet or rather are shown over the house by the wife of a Mr. Richard Dale, whose family at present farm the adjoining land and have done so for over a hundred years, we can only marvel how small the world is, and that to-day a Dale, possibly a descendant of our old friend the " carpeder " of MDLXI, should be showing us the window his ancestor carved. When I taxed Mr. Dale himself with being a descendant of his celebrated forebear in the carving line, like our present-day politicians, he did not commit himself to any definite statement. "The guide-book says so," was all I could get from him. In my perspective view, the gate-house is seen 40 (DHffi) ^ 00M0m.'^ ISOlDri THE ENTRANCE rORCII TO COURTYARD. :^SS-^' in the foreground, with its wonderful, rather top-heavy upper story. But I must mention 41 n* mm^ mmbih uprights — a thing that can only be done by an enthusiast. Here, at Congleton, I found him a young man who spends all his holidays visiting these old places, and, moreover, one who has served his apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker and is now an art master. When I mentioned my difficulty in finding a maker of models, he jumped at the idea, and when I discovered that his present vocation was a teacher of wood-carving at a local technical school, 1 took him to my heart. An enthusiast on old houses, a cabinet-maker and wood-carver — what an ideal combination for my model maker. Before I left Congleton we had come to terms, the preliminaries for models had been arranged, and before this book is published I hope to have models of all six houses among my most cherished possessions. .^%S^ 5° JMimsWMM ^ ®(n)®(B[ .s^p^if- Zo tbe iprecious IWantc of IDamc 2)orotb^ Sclb^. Sbc was a SJorcas, IClbose curious ncc&le turueC> tbe abuscC* staae ©f tbts lew5 \vorl5 into tbe ijolden age. Mbose pen of steel an& silften ink cnroUe5 Xlbc acts of Jonab in recor&s of golD. tabosc art Disclosed tbat plot, wbicb, ba5 it taken, IRome ba5 triumpbe& auO Britain's walls ba^ sbaken. 3n beart a Xv&ia, anJ) in toncuie a Ibannab, 3n jeal a TRutb, in weDloch a Susannab, pruDentli^ simple, prov>i&entiaUi? war?, TLo tbe worlD a /iDartba anC» to 1lDcav>en a /lOarv?. THIS is the house of the Selbys, the home of Dame Dorothy Selby, the lady who is described upon her tombstone in Ightham churchyard as being a paragon of all the virtues, and who is credited with having either sent the anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle which gave away the Gunpowder Plot, or who solved the 51 JMISMW^^ ^ ©OSCBI problem of it by working it in needlework — an art of which she was a great exponent. Ightham Mote is inseparably connected with the Selby family — as Moreton is with the Moretons, and of this family Dame Dorothy, whose epitaph is found at the head of this chapter, stands alone. Dame Dorothy Selby of the Mote — what a delightful old lady she must have been 1 To-day Mr. Colyer Fergusson, the present owner of the house, gives us permission to see Dame Dorothy's home on any Friday afternoon we may wish to do so. Surely our thanks are due to him and his family for granting us this concession — a favour which I do not think we always realize. ■*-'^"i? 52 ©H© ^ 00Mn)m'^ B®^i .1 Imagine a gentleman, shall we say, living at Brixton, allowing the public to roam over his villa or mansion from two to four o'clock every Friday ; to penetrate to that sanctum sanctorum his drawing-room — and even to walk in his back garden and inspect his chicken-run. I only wish that some of the summer visitors to these houses, those who leave sandwich paper and other impedimenta about, could and would place them- selves in the position of these public-spirited owners and imagine for one minute their own domains being so invaded. S3 mjsmmmM * ©©sea T fancy the Times would soon be full of letters on the subject, and in a very short time the local Member would be forced to ask a question about it in the House. The Mote House is what Victorian writers would have described as being one of England's " popular antiquities." Every Friday in the summer people arrive in cars, char-a-bancs, and on foot to see this glorious old house, which has a public right of way running down its front drive ; and every Friday afternoon an attendant is kept busy showing visitors over it. By the kindness of the owner I was allowed to make my sketches at any time and to spend many days there. The popular and perhaps truthful impression 54 OM'B ^ 00Mn)m^^ lS€)IDf 1 is that an artist's life is a lazy one, and I certainly have at these houses at least one day which would verify this belief. Most people think that to make a sketch all you have to do is find a "pretty" subject — -sit down on a camp-stool and splash your paint on — just in the same way as the amateur photo- grapher takes his photos before he has had time to look at his subject. In reality, I am afraid it is nothing of the sort. Generally, on the first day I am taken by any looker-on for the " village idiot," or a harmless type of madman. As for that whole day I wander about the building, peering at it from this view and from that, and trying to settle from which points of view my drawings shall be made. All of which must sound, and I am sure looks. 55 IMM^WMm '^ ®(D)^(BI very lazy way of spending one's time to people who allow perhaps one hour at most " seeing " the house, and in that time take half a dozen snapshots. It always takes one complete day to explore thoroughly and decide on these points of view. On the second day, having fully settled these weighty questions, I plunge at it at 9 a.m. and stick to it as long as daylight lasts, A performer, however, should never give away his tricks, or the illusion evaporates. If I told you that for my hird's-eye views I climbed a tree and made a noise like an aeroplane, the trick would fail, and I should have to give up drawing and take to some other profession. I think an *'ale draper," or "jersey comber," like the Congletonians— they sound so easy. Ightham Mote House is best approached down the steep hill from Ivy Hatch, which is some five miles from Sevenoaks. Down this incline, after passing one or two cottages on our left we get the first view of Dame Dorothy's home. This in itself is one of its most fascinating views — looking over the top of the kitchen-garden 56 oM^ ^ mMwn)m^ sscDW^cg^ wall, above the yew hedge to the garden side to the tower, and the front entrance of the Mote. This is the view that " gets over," as they say in the theatre — the view that holds even the motorist, and makes him stop his car to look at it. Unbelievable as it may seem, I have actually seen a car noiselessly running down this incline actually stopped by its owners, to look at the view ! We take our hat off to such motorists as we always do to a sweep. Why is it that coaching and driving men used always to raise their hats to a sweep Tk reason the Fownes family gave me was that it was "for luck." I presume because horses were apt to shy at a sweep. 1 remember whenever you passed a sweep on the road the driver of the coach always saluted him with his whip, giving him a cheery " good morning, sweep," as he drove bv. Even now, I always raise my hat instinctively to a sweep if I pass one on the road when driving my car — which lets the cat out of the bag, so to speak, and shows that even a car-hater and a horse-lover can fall so low as to own the former. 57 iKBMmnmm * ©©scsi nt)T>® My only excuse is that it is a very, very old car, and having driven it for many years I still know nothing about its interior, nor can tell the sparking-plug from the carburetter. But let us get back to dear Dame Dorothy, who would have disliked cars and everything to do with them, for at present we have, not even got up to the moat which surrounds her house, and we are still standing looking over the kitchen- garden wall. As we walk round to its great entrance doors, we will glance at the story of its inmates and the history of its being. The East or kitchen and great hall portion is perhaps the oldest part, dating from what our " competent architectural authority " once again would tell us is of the Decorated period, i.e., between 1270 and 1380, during the reigns of the three first Edwards and Richard II. -, In this part of the building was the original chapel (not where it stands to-day), the kitchens and great hall, the walls -of which are in many places four feet thick. This portion was the whole extent of the first 58 (DE® ^ mjEm^M'^^ HJCDB ! house as built some time during this period, between 1270 and 1380. At a slightly latei date the gate-house tower was built by Edward Haut in i486, to whom we shall refer later, and after this, at various dates, and by various owners, the side wings of the quadrangle were completed. Ightham in its early youth was like Stokesay, just a gate-house in one building, and great hall, solar, kitchens, and chapel, etc., in another. Later came the Tudor chapel, so delightfully pictured by Nash in 1 84.0, and other half-timbered portions during the sixteenth and seventeenth, and even some windows during the eighteenth century. Of its owners, Ivo de Haut seems to have been the earliest recorded, for he lived here during the reign of Henry II between i 154 and i 189, and after him, in Henry Ill's reign, came Sir Piers FitzHaut, who was also steward to that king's household. The next recorded name is that of Sir Thomas Cawne, in the reign of Edward III, who is credited with being the builder of the great hall. Why this Sir Thomas Cawne comes in here in the pedigree I cannot discover, for from 1374? 59 IM'O) TmmmwBm ^ ®(D)^cb[ % ^j>. thirty-four years later, to 1450, the de Haut family were again undoubtedly the owners — two de Hauts being High Sheriffs of Kent, Henry de Haut in 1371 and Richard de Haut from 1478 to 1482, the latter being unfortunately beheaded at Pontefract in 1484, and the estate confiscated by the Crown. Rather ominously, perhaps, we find the next owner to be Sir Robert Brackenbury, Governor of the Tower, who was killed the next year at Bosworth Field. In Henry VII's reign the property was once more restored by the Crown to the Haut family, and Edward Haut, the builder of the gate-house tower, became the owner. In 1 5 2 I , a Sir Richard Clement bought the Mote House from the Hauts, and built the present chapel. Then Sir John, and later Sir Hugh Packenham, owned it from 1532 to 1544, when a,^ Lord Mayor of London, Sir Hugh Allen, became owner by purchase. Sir Christopher and Charles Allen followed him from 1559 to 1580, while Elizabeth was on the throne, and it was not until i 5 9 i that the Selby family came into 60 (DH© ^ ®^ini(D)® ^4^ la€)ID/0Cgj --=*®^*p» Ti possession of it through purchase by Sir William Selby, Mayor of Berwick, who was knighted by King James at Berwick in 1603. After this, his nephew, another Sir William Selby, came into the property in 1 6 1 1 , and now we come, after long and somewhat heavy reading, to the interesting part, for at this point our heroine steps onto the stage in the shape of Dame Dorothy Selby, the wife of this owner. From then onwards, the house was tenanted by Selbys from 1591 until 1889, when the present owner, Mr. Colyer Fergusson, purchased the estate. As we have now crossed the bridge over the moat and arrived at the porch, we can see the Selby crest in front of us, carved on the tower above the entrance gates to the courtyard. 61 }l(BlSMJS0m -^ ®(D)SCH[ On the left-hand side of this porch is a long slit in the wall, which was made to allow the porter to hold parley with anyone outside, without being seen or opening the gates. It is rather a curious and ingenious contrivance ; below is the plan of it, with the porter speaking to someone outside on the moat bridge. Having assured this porter that our intentions are honest, the massive doors are swung open, and we pass under the tower into the courtyard. Facing us is the great hall, and on our left the Henry VIII chapel ; all of which can be best explained by a plan of the building and the bird's- eye view of the house, given on the preceding page. There seems very little doubt that, the original main entrance to the Mote House was through an 62 (DM© ^ ©BOacD)® ^4e By.-W; :?«^:-7£i' it^sv.r- OEffl) ^ ^^OacD)® ^ I^(O)TD/0(H^ he hands you over, temporarily, to the guide belonging to another college. I shall never forget once spending a day in a celebrated school classroom during hoUday time, and hearing the official college guide make the same little joke, and go through the same wonderful exhibition of rhetoric, with each successive group of sightseers. One can understand that the description of a place and its history becomes mechanical, but unfortunately for me, the two jokes, which always got their laugh, always came at the same moment, and were invariably led up to by one of the crowd asking the obvious question at the appointed time. After he had brought round about six or seven " parties," with the same, for me, tedious result, I thought that he must have had an accomplice in the crowd to lead up to his joke, but on carefully studying each face as the successive groups arrived into the classroom, I could never see the same one twice or recognize one that I had seen in the room before. What a glorious profession for a humorist. To know that at a given moment some total stranger 65 JMJSMWMm ^ ®(D)S(B[ will give you your cue to bring off your pet joke, and to know that it is infallible, and that twenty times a day you will be able to laugh with your audience at it. Now let us look at the letter Dame Dorothy deciphered or wrote, warning Lord Monteagle of the Gunpowder Plot, and about which a Mr. Thomas Selby, who was a descendant of the Northumberland Selbys in the female line, writes in the "Gentleman's Magazine" of 1863 :— " There is an old tradition that it was Dame Dorothy Selby who discovered the meaning of the anonymous letter, and a report, less well- founded, adds that she discovered it by working it on a piece of tapestry . " I cannot vouch for this latter report, but the following facts are beyond dispute. " My great-great-grandmother Dorothy, the daughter of Sir Henry Selby, Kt., second son of George, cousin of Sir William Selby, the husband of Dame Dorothy, handed down the tradition to her children, and as such it was stated to me by my grandmother, the late Mrs. Selby of the Mote, who died in 1845, aged 90." 66 m>.v(ord out: ofl^C-'^'K' '"^'"■'^^^io/cmCOfjjoue^A^J. Jsrood and tm»7ia lijf <:m2c,urreciTo p imifiir^^f>^>4sfdv£s. Y iiiixr}'tiiCanilliix^W noIfCiofitCpt'ofiffis-'zdinO^fmeyir imp(^rp^r6r Vihf^j^tfoy ^^/"jy^/^^^'^'^rt^re % nmpi'ioj'Oinnodandcan ^^^^ W/K'^^''^ tm ■uf(of And here is a reproduction of a portion of the actual letter, which either Dame Dorothy wrote, or at any rate deciphered, one authority stating that it was done while she was staying at Gayhurst in Bucks : — Letter ok Warning to Lord Monteagle. " To the %t^ght-Honorable the L.ord CMonteagle. " My Lord, " Out of the love I bear you to some of your friends I have a care of your preservation therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance at this parliament for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time and think not slightlv of this advertizement, but retire 67 imjsmJB^m * ©©sec^ yourself into youre country where you may expect the event to . . . for though there be no fire yet appearance of any fire yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it. To whose Holy protection I commend you." I think with Mr. Selby that she was much more likely to have written it, for as far as I can see there is very little difficulty, if the copies I have been able to see of the original letter are correct, for anyone to decipher the manuscript. Moreover there is somehow a female touch about it. The little matter of the word " you " being corrected and almost erased in the first line, and "to some of your fiiends " added, rather bears this out, the printed letters being obviously used to hide identity by handwriting. I should like, however, to see the word " My " in Dame 68 (DH® ^ 00M(^M'^ 'M(mn^^i Dorothy's ordinary handwriting, as the writer of the letter had not got his or her hand in, so to speak, and the first "M" and "y" are evidently in the usual hand of the writer. Then there is no doubt that in the original the lettering was done by someone who was accustomed either to drawing or sewing, and this was more likely to have been a woman than a man. The type of the black-letter printing is well drawn, if I may say so, for there is no shakiness or uncertainty about it, after the first two words, and the size of the lettering varies very slighdy ; also although on an unruled surface the level is kept exceedingly well. All of which points to a hand used to using the needle, pen or brush. Referring back to our dates, we see that Dame Dorothy's husband did not come into the Mote House property until the decease of his uncle in 1 6 1 1 . So that the little picture I had intended to do of our heroine wriring the letter at the Mote House must be abandoned, as, whether she wrote 69 jmisMW^m ^ ®(D)S(Bt 'i^O the debated letter to Lord Monteagle or whether she did not, the fact of dates clearly shows us that it was not done while she was the chatelaine of the Mote House itself, and rather adds conviction to the authority who states that it was done while staying at Gayhurst in Bucks. I fear conjecture, however, makes rather uninteresting reading, and we know that epitaphs are sometimes apt to flatter on the ^e mortuis nil nisi bonnm principle ; yet the fact of this epitaph clearly making reference to her pen and needlework and the great plot, and also the circumstantial evidence of the MS. of the letter itself— the carefully drawn lettering and neatness of the text— all rather point to the character of Dame Dorothy, who we are told was a Dorcas. " Prudently simple, providentially wary," one who could wield the " pen of steel " or " silken ink " with particular skill. From the days of my early youth. Dame Dorothy has always been my heroine of the letter, and to me she shall always remain its originator. 70 mMns% Cw^, o That is the side from which I first approached Bramshill, and where I spent many days with occasional visits from a youthful descendant of Sir John Cope's, who kept up a continuous flow of ingenuous and critical conversation just behind me as she watched the progress of my work. In half an hour I knew more about herself, her school, her elder brother and sister, her aunts, Bramshill House, and the countryside in general than I could have discovered for myself in iive years, besides a thousand and one other interesting facts on life in general, and school in particular. Then I discovered that my young friend was an authoress, a story of hers having won a competition in " The Young Ladies' Forget-me-not Magazine " I think it was, and had actually been in print, the remuneration for her literary effort being a large box of chocolates. I was also told that " As soon as it was finished I wrote and told the Editor that the box was empty, and he sent me another." 9° OH© ^ mj^wBrni'^ acDTDf 1 j^i^ ^^\ ^^ If my charming and candid critic will only write to me, I will send her a dozen. One day I stayed rather late in order to sketch a sunset. "You're very late to-night," said my young friend as I prepared to pack up the implements of my trade, "won't your wife be cross if you're late for dinner ? " " Now, how do you know that 1 am a married man ? " I queried. (We had never been formally introduced, or met before our casual acquaintanceship.) Very seriously came the reply : " I always know a married man, he has so many wrinkles on his forehead." " Out of the mouths of babes " has the brand of the Benedict at last been discovered. 9' (n)(aiiffi(H[iaH0* mMomSi £?55S5£J>r\ When we were children we always used to save the piece of bread with the biggest lump of jam upon it until the last ; Ockwells is this tit-bit that I have been saving until the end, at the same time it is the manor house which fills me with more envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness than any other. Whenever I go to Ockwells I long for the good old prehistoric days, when if you wanted a thing you just picked out your heaviest and most knotted club, and went out and— got it. I long to club Sir Edward Barry, F.S.A., the owner of Ockwells, and afterwards to walk in and take possession of his home and everything that is his ; just pure unadulterated envy with murderous intent. After all, why shouldn't I ? As the children say, "I found it first." I knew the house before he did, at any rate before he bought it, nearly 92 ©niD ^^ ®Hia(D)® '^^ i^€mmm thirty years ago. I went and sketched it then, when it was a rather ruinous farm-house, and I have sketched it to-day. No wonder I get " peeved," now that it is in the hands of an owner who has treated it as few owners would have had the knowledge to do, who has restored it in so perfect a way, and created a most glorious flower from the withered shell, while keeping the perfume of the original blossom hanging over it. No wonder I envy this owner and all that is his. Ockwells, near Bray, in Berkshire, is not a large house like Bramshill, and has no imposing front which can be seen from the high-road. It is in fact very difficult to find, but when once you have found it, and obtained the necessary permission to see over it, you realize what a perfect specimen of a smaller manor house it is, and you at once understand my prehistoric 93 dDdlSffi (310130* MB tendencies towards the owner ; surely in order to become the possessor of even one of his EHzabethan bedsteads, or a single suit of his wonderful armour, it would tempt any right- minded man to feel the same. In truth, the owner must be an artist as well as being a distinguished antiquarian, which do not necessarily run together, for the colour of his house fascinates him as much as the antiquity of the o^j'ets cVart he has within it. He must also have a great feeling for tone values. At times a painter feels that certain objects in the picture seem out of tone with the ^rroundings ; but at Ockwells nothing either inside or outside the house ever strikes vou in this way. You never feel that a suit of armour stands out too prominently in the room, or an old hanging flag in the great hall has too much light upon it. 94 ©EID ^ ®Blffiia)ja^^ 1^(0)1000, 95 0(0111® (3IHE0^i* M^mSi ^^K Everything in the house is in tone, and is in its right place, and every piece of furniture takes its correct tone value in the whole. True it is not quite in the same way as at Bramshill, where everything, so to speak, has been bred in the house, for when I first knew Ockwells the only antiquities it contained were a pair of Cromwell's boots (then lost), the refectory table (unmovable), and a malformed pair of antlers, all of which are now in Sir Edward Barry's house. Moreover, it had very little of the priceless old heraldic glass in its great hall that is there to-day, as, fortunately, this had been removed some time before to a place of safety at Taplow Court. As we have done with our other manor houses, so we will continue with Ockwells, and take a glance at its history and the people who have 96 i^caii^i^s ais}(S)i^ V i (DM© ^ 00mn)mi'^ nsoiDri lived in it, while from time to time I will show you, to the best of my ability, in my pictures what the house looks like to-day. The manor of Ockholt or Ockwells was granted in 1267 to one Richard de Norreys, who was a member of the family of Lancashire Norreys living at Speke Hall in that county. Somewhere about one hundred years later it was left to John Norreys, a son of Sir Henry Norreys of Speke. He was the founder of the Berkshire branch of the Norreys family, and between 1446 and 1456 a grandson of his, also called John, built Ockwells manor house. This John Norreys must have been a great favourite at Court, if we may judge by the number of official positions he held at various times, being Usher to the Chamber in Henry VI's reign and also Squire of the Body and Master of the Wardrobe, all very important Court offices. 97 nnm (D&mmiBMMi -'^mr3 D^^^ In 1442 he was SherifF of Oxfordshire, and of Berkshire in 1457, Edward IV making him Squire of the Body and afterwards knighting him. His son John succeeded him in 1467, and he also became, in due time, Sheriff of both counties. After this, the history of Ockwells seems to be more or less obscure, and the manor constantly changed hands, eventually degenerating into a farm-house, from which state Sir Edward Barry rescued it. The story of its stained glass, which contains the coats-of-arms of many well-known people of Plantagenet times, helps us a little with Ockwells' history and is contained in the eighteen jjpper windows of the great hall. With the help of Mr. Everard Green (Rouge Dragon, and late vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries), who has deciphered these windows for the owner, we will read the story they tell us. 98 ©Hffi) ^ mHm^M'^ 3S(D)Wi In the farthest window from the entrance we have the coat-of-arms of Sir Henry Beauchamp, Knight of the Garter, Sixth Earl of Warwick, who in 1444 was created "first and chief" Earl of England, with the special privilege of wearing a golden circlet, and among other things, was Lord of the Forest of Dean, and Hereditary Pantler to the King's Household. He was also crowned King of the Isle of Wight by Henry VI. He died, aged twenty-two only, in 1446, and his little daughter. Lady Ann Beauchamp, aged five, followed him in 1448, being buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Reading — another of life's tragedies. In the next window we have the armorial 99 (n)(cci®(aiaiH0* ^mnm bearings of Sir Edmund Beaufort, K.G., who was Constable of the Tower in 1450, and was killed, fighting on the Lancastrian side, at the battle of St. Albans in 1455. Then the arms of Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, in the fourth window those of Sir John de la Pole, K.G., and in the fifth those of Henry VI. After this comes Sir James Butler's coat-of-arms : he was knighted in 1426 and was afterwards 100 (DH®^ ®^ia(D)3a^^ia®'t0i created Earl of Wiltshire. His second wife was Eleanor, daughter of Edward Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and of Eleanor, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. In the seventh window is the crest of the Benedictine Abbey of Abingdon, and in the eighth the coat-of-arms of Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury from 1450 to 148 i. In the ninth the coat-of-arms of Sir John Norreys, the builder of the house, whose crest, in correct heraldic language, is a "raven rising proper." The tenth window has the arms of Sir John Wenlock, who was Usher to Queen Margaret of Anjou, mentioned and left a legacy in Sir John Norreys's will ; and the eleventh window contams the coat-of-arms of Sir William Lacon, of Stow, in Kent, who was buried at Bray m 1475, his wife being a Miss Syperwast of Clewer near Bray lOI U^<^® (n)(nmm(BmM&^^ mmmm. n^s The twelfth has the arms of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, and great-grandfather of Edward IV and Richard III. Sir Edward Nanfan's coat-of-arms, the Sir Edward who lived at that beautiful house, Birtsmorton Court, in Worcestershire, appears in the thirteenth window ; and in the fourteenth the same arms and crest, but the impalement is different. The fifteenth has the arms of Sir John Lang- fort, Kt., who married a daughter of Sir William Norreys of Bray, grand-daughter of Sir John Norreys of Ockwells and Yattendon, Berks. w In the sixteenth window the arms and crest are probably those of the De la Beche family at Aldworth, Berks, where there is a farm-house still known as De la Beche. The families of De la Beche and Langford were related. Sir Philip 1 02 OHIO) ^ 00M(n)m^ y^(mnmm de la Beche s only daughter marrying Sir John Langtord, The Langford family owned Aldvvorth until the early part of the sixteenth century. The seventeenth window contains the arms of John Purye of Chamberhouse in the parish of Thatcham, Berks. He was bodyservant to Henry IV. Lastly, in the eighteenth window we have the arms of Richard Balstrode of Upton, Bucks, who was Keeper of the Wardrobe to Queen Margaret of Anjou, a son of William Balstrode who married Agnes, daughter of William Norreys of Ockwells. From this list it can be seen that, as was usual in houses in Plantagenet and Tudor times, the coats-of-arms of the owner, his King and Queen, friends and relations, were emblazoned on the windows of his house. 103 ©(OijiiffiOMing-* m^n^sm X t ^::i «>-' Besides all the coats ot-arms of his friends Sir John Norreys had his own motto, " Feythfully serve, on every window. When the present owner of Ockwells bought the property he had the glass brought from Tap- low, where it had been kept for safety, and replaced piece by piece in its original great hall windows, the wonderful brilliancy of its colouring, together with the extraordinary artistic value of its blacks and blues, making it a feature which is not to be found in any other house. The present approach to the house is more or less modern, the entrance gates now being on a comparatively new road. There is, however, very little doubt that the original entrance was from the old Windsor and Maidenhead Thicket road, 104 CS)(a!^®(HIHM^ misM^^^ ^>8^^^.^s^.^■■;'^^■^^^^^^»-■■.>•^^:^^^»■Ag/t^■ev OH® ^^ 00Sm)^'^' laOTDf i traces of which can still be seen across the Ockwells estate. You made your entrance then under the gate- house, which we still see, and as we always prefer the old ways to the new, let us enter under this gate-house which faces the new entrance. Here we have our first view of the house, with its beautifully-toned roof, carved barge-boards, and stained-glass windows. Certain additions have been made, but they are so good and in such perfect keeping with the original old portions, that no one but the most confirmed " purist '^ could object to them. At one time, no doubt, there was a complete, possibly loopholed, wall surrounding the house, and traces of this have been found when getting out foundations for other walls, but it was never a moated manor house. 105 (UXWS: iMM©^ m^niam The charm of Ockwells is its air of restraint ; there is nothing, may we say, theatrical about it, nothing of the strong black-and-white, such as we have at Moreton, for here everything is quiet and in tone. A beauty that grows upon you every second you look at it, and the longer you look the more fascinated you become with it. Before we enter the house I will tell you a story, which, unlike Dame Selby's, has not been handed down from generation to generation but at the same time is a true one. The owner of a certain old manor house and his family were one day at luncheon, when they saw a large and heavily-laden car glide by their open window and pull up at the front door. No visitor, however, rang the bell, and after some minutes they could see from their window the occupants of the car preparing for an elaborate picnic on their lawn opposite the front door. io6 oM® ^ mMwn)mi'^ jscdtdt 0ch^ m Having a sense of humour the owner did not interfere but awaited developments. Seating themsehes on the grass the motorists thoroughly enjoyed a large Fortnum and Mason hampered meal. In due time cigarettes and cigars were lighted and presently a rather raucous voice was heard to exclaim, " Say, but we've forgotten the old house ! " — at the same time its owner strode up to the front porch and gave a loud bang on the knocker and ringing of the bell. A message was presently brought to the amused owner that a Mr. of had come to see over the old house. History says that the owner's sense of humour did not go so far as to allow them to do so, but a very, very polite message was sent, " the owner regretting that his house was not open on that day," etc., etc. After some grumbling the car occupants 107 (n)(aiis®(H[i0ia©-^ mM'Swm. departed, leaving, as a memento of their visit, a considerable amount of corks, paper, and one broken glass on the lawn. On the right of the porch is the great hall with its massively timbered roof running the full height of the house, and under the windows the original refectory table, which, without cutting in pieces, it is impossible to get out of the room. Opposite the windows we have a fine open hearth where five-foot logs are always burnt, logs which take two men to carry each one. At the east end is the Minstrels' Gallery, reached by a small staircase in the passage outside. As to Ockwells itself, far abler pens than mine must describe it. The architectural beauty, and the treasures it contains are beyond the scope and capabilities of this already too bulky note- book, the pages of which are only intended to io8 give the reader a few notes which I am afraid can be but poor imitations ot the beautiful originals. Such as they are, however, I have placed them before you in the hope that they may be the initiative for a pilgrimage. When that pilgrimage is undertaken may the pleasure afforded to myself when visiting these Manor Houses be equally yours, and I shall feel that my sketch-book has not been in vain. \ UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBH D 000 018 f