Loseley House. This ancient Mansion—the residence of James More Molyneux, Esq., the lineal representative of two families, famous in old times—although sadly impaired by time and neglect—cannot fail, while one stone remains above another, to retain the interest that arises from venerable antiquity, in association with renowned names. It is situated about two miles south-west of Guildford. A long Avenue, perfectly bare of trees, leads from the public road to the House. The old Hall has been shorn of its proud and graceful proportions; repairs have been made by sloven hands; parts of the Moat have been filled up, but so coarsely, as to seem the result of accident rather than design. The principal approach is over a bridge between clumsy stables and storehouses. The odious face of a modern clock covers the antique Horologe, of which many of its old admirers make honourable mention; the Porch, which bears the date of 1812, over which is still inscribed, in Roman capital letters, the sentence—

is of a nondescript character, utterly out of keeping with the structure; a deformity which—following absurdities of outhouses and unseemly patches—carries conviction that

Nor is the impression removed upon entering the venerable Hall—venerable only from its age—for bad taste appears to have studied how most effectually to deface it. A patent stove, of Birmingham manufacture, stands a few feet from the embayed window, illuminated with the “Household Coats of the Family, emblazoned in the gorgeous tinctures of Heraldry on the glass;” a “thin” Gallery, which the gauntleted hand of one of the grim Knights of old times might shiver into fragments at a single blow, leads to some upper chambers; above the sturdy arched Doorway hang some double-handed swords, glaives, partisans, and rusty helmets, relics of the once heroic masters of the place,—

mingled with the bugles of a brass band, and the drumsticks of a corps of Yeomanry.

These unequivocal signs of neglect and tokens of indifference towards ancient honours and long-ago renown are mournful indications—grieving the heart of the antiquary, and nullifying the belief that a proud name is a noble heritage because a stimulus to rivalry in honour and in fame. It has been our bounden duty thus to notice this modern vandalism—for the humblest writer may contribute somewhat to increase a love for what is excellent by aiding to censure what is evil.

Of its internal decorations there are some interesting and valuable remains, which have neither been removed nor defaced. Mr. Shaw, in his “Details of Elizabethan Architecture,” publishes an engraving of the beautiful and elaborately-carved Chimneypiece of the Dining Room. “The compartment above the mantel is entirely devoted to a very full display of heraldic insignia, recording the descent and alliances of the family

of More; the rich effect of which is increased by the spirited carvings of the styles, and of the six variously-formed panels in which the several shields are inserted. These ornaments are all executed in fine stone, and skilfully wrought.” The ceilings at Loseley are also of remarkable character. That of the Drawing Room is especially fine. It is adorned with “Gothic tracery and pendant corbels.” In one of the cornices is inserted a mulberry-tree, on one side of which is inscribed “Morus tarde Moriens;” on the other, “Morum cito Moriturum”—being a rebus on the name of the family. The ceiling of the Bed Room, of which a portion is shown in the wood-cut annexed, is also very beautiful. In several of the compartments are introduced the Moor-cock and Moor-hen—badges of the race of More.

“The Manor of Loseley,” according to Mr. Kempe, in his introduction to “The Loseley Manuscripts,”[47] “bore its present appellation from the Saxon times.” Osmond gave it to King Edward the Confessor; the Conqueror gave it to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury, a stout leader of the Normans at Hastings fight; and after passing into the possession of various persons by inheritance or purchase, it was, early in the reign of the Eighth Henry, bought by Christopher More, Esq., whose grandfather was Thomas More, of Norton, in the County of Derby, Gent., with whom the pedigree of More of Loseley, in the Books of the Heralds’ College, begins. His son and successor, William, who was knighted by the Earl of Leicester—“the Queen being present at the ceremony”—built the Mansion at Loseley, commencing the work in 1562—it is conjectured “to the north of an older edifice.” It was evidently intended to form three squares of a quadrangle, if not a complete square. The centre of the building, which remains to this day, was completed in 1568. The Gallery and Chapel were added subsequently, but these have been “of late years demolished.” The accompanying wood-cut is of the South front; and, fortunately for the picturesque effect of the subject, a group of trees on the

lawn conceals from view the ungainly modern porch, and some other monstrous additions to the venerable building of the sixteenth century.

To Sir William More succeeded, in 1600, Sir George More, who had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth; and who, under James the First, was Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, Lieutenant of the Tower, and Receiver-General and Treasurer to Henry Prince of Wales. The last male heir of the Mores dying in 1689, the estate devolved to Margaret his sister, who married Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knight, the ancestor of the present possessor of Loseley—a name even more renowned than that with which thenceforward it became united.

It was during the Lordship of Sir George More—between the years 1600 and 1632—that the history of Loseley became deeply interesting, as associated with some of the most remarkable events and illustrious worthies of the epoch. The famous Dr. Donne—Poet, Scholar, and Divine—privately married the daughter of Sir George. Donne was at that time Secretary to the Lord Chancellor Egerton, the husband of the Lady’s aunt. The marriage was “to Sir George so immeasurably unwelcome,” that he successfully exerted his influence to procure the Poet’s dismissal from his honourable and profitable service, and consigned to a gaol the clergyman by whom the knot had been tied. His father-in-law—although earnestly intreated in a letter, still preserved at Loseley, “so to deal in the matter as the persuasions of nature, reason, wisdome, and Christianity should dictate”—separated the couple, imprisoning one “offender,” and involving the other in a tedious and ruinous law-suit, for the recovery of his “deare life.” His friend and biographer, exquisite Izaak Walton, has in his own simple and natural manner recorded the story of this young affection, and of the sad trials and pecuniary difficulties in which the Poet and his wife were for a long period involved; presenting us with a beautiful though a mournful picture of a high and generous mind struggling against the most galling of all troubles; to him the more intolerable, because of her whom he had “transplanted into a wretched fortune, which he laboured to disguise from her by many honest inventions.” At length, however, fate was not only borne but conquered; Dr. Donne entered into holy orders, became a prosperous man—King’s Chaplain and Dean of St. Paul’s—and the gates of Loseley did not for ever remain closed against him. Other names—equally immortal—are associated with this ancient house. Sir George More was the guardian of Lord Herbert of Cherbury—the Knight “whose chivalry was drawn from the purest founts of the Fairy Queen”—the history of whose life is a brilliant romance.

Queen Elizabeth paid frequent visits to Loseley during her “progresses;” and among the “manuscripts” there exists a letter, not very complimentary to the hospitality of the Mansion, in which Sir Anthony Wingfield warns his friend Mr. More that he will find the visit “a very great trouble and hinderance,” and advises him how to get himself excused from the honour. It is certain, however, that her Majesty did receive entertainment there, several times. There are letters from Sir Christopher Hatton, in 1583, and from Lord Hunsdon, in 1591, ordering Sir William More that his house be “kept sweete and cleane” to receive her Highness—and the former intimates, that a past excuse will not again serve a turn; “for,” writes Sir Christopher, “I have been heretofore informed that you had some sycke of the infectione the last yeare, and of other dangerous diseases of late in it, w’ch is now reported here as a misinformacion and for otherwise than the brute (bruit) declared.” The letter is addressed “from the Court at Otlands, to the Right w’ship?? my very good frende, S? Will’m More, Knight.”