Within two miles of the ancient town of Droitwich, whose salt-springs have been famous since the time of the Romans, stands Westwood House, in the centre of an extensive park, well wooded, and consisting of about two hundred acres. To the east of the house is a lake extending over sixty acres, but which was originally intended to cover one hundred acres of ground. The principal front of the house commands a view of this lake; and being situated in the centre of the park, commanding on all sides the vistas produced by the fine old trees, whose radiating avenues surround it, it is as happily placed as any mansion in the kingdom. Nash, in his “History of Worcestershire,” thus describes it:—“Westwood House consists of a square building, from each corner of which projects a wing in the form of a parallelogram, and turretted in the style of the ChÂteau de Madrid near Paris, or Holland House. It is situated on a rising ground, and encircled with about two hundred acres of oak timber. The richness of the wood combining with the stateliness of the edifice forms a picture of ancient magnificence, unequalled by any thing in this county.” The house is of brick, with stone quoins and parapets, and bears a striking resemblance to an old Norman chÂteau. Our plate exhibits the peculiarities of its design as seen in the principal front. The body of the house is a solid square of three stories in height, the saloon occupying the first floor, and being lighted by large bay-windows. Wings project in a line from the centre of each corner of the house, and communicate by doors with each floor of the central building. Opposite each wing, at some distance from them, are erected small square towers, which were originally connected with the main building by walls, which have now been removed, and the small garden surrounding the house entirely thrown open. This garden is encircled by an open railing, and immediately in front of the house, and still further in advance, is the entrance-gate. Our cut exhibits the construction of the central pile as it appears from the garden, with the principal front and one side, taking in a view of three of the wings. The offices and stabling are at some short distance in the rear of this, and where the kitchen-garden now stands originally stood an ancient nunnery, of which no remains exist; but Nash tells us that, in digging, they sometimes find stone coffins and foundations of buildings.

Eustachia de Say and her son Osbert Fitzhugh, having given the church here to the abbey of Font-Evraud in Normandy, an abbey closely connected with our Norman kings, and where several lie buried, and having, during the reign of Henry II., granted them various lands, Osbert is styled the founder of the church of St. Mary at Westwood, in the ancient deeds. Shortly afterwards was erected a small priory, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, for six nuns of the Benedictine order, which, when once established, shared the usual favours bestowed on such foundations during the middle ages; it ultimately numbered seventeen or eighteen inmates. The grants of property, as recited by Nash, do not appear to have been of such great value as ever to have given great riches or importance to the priory, but they were of a kind to ensure a certain amount of comfort and worldly prosperity to the nuns who inhabited it; and some of the grants are curious, inasmuch as they shew the kindliness of feeling with which they were regarded, and the simple usefulness of many donations; all indicative of a period when the necessities of life were more dependent on the interchange of individual courtesies than they are at present. Thus, “Jocelyn Fitz Richard, of Wich (Droitwich), gave them free passage for corn and hay over the bridge of Brerhulle, as far as his meadow extended, from hay-time to Michaelmas, and for wood from hay-time to All Saints.” Others made them various grants for things in return, which they wanted, and which, being of considerably less value, became a profitable quit-rent. Thus “Stephen de Elmbrug gave land in Ruinestreet, Droitwich, for one pound of cummin or pepper yearly, at Michaelmas; which was confirmed at his death by his son Inard.” Ralph Hacket, “a dole of salt, with a salt-pit and wood-place, for three shillings and a mit of salt; Ralph Huson confirmed this, and gave an acre in Broadmead, with seven butts adjoining, for a mark of silver (13s. 4d.); also six sellions of land without Guerston Ditch, belonging to their church of St. Nicholas, at Wich. Osbert Fitz Osbert Bende, of Wich, gave lands in Wich, which he held in fee of Derhurst, with two helflings (four pounds) and a half of salt at Northernmost Wich, for a pair of white gloves yearly to his heirs, and fourpence halfpenny and six baskets of salt.” Other lands were also held by the same grant of salt from Droitwich, and remittances of rent by the same means. The change in the value of money is strikingly visible in some grants; thus, “William Fitz Aldred Fikemore gave 4d. yearly rent,” and “Adam Fitz Adam Luveton, of Wich, gave 12d. yearly rent;” sums which now appear almost ludicrous.

Of the various prioresses of this retired and remote establishment, but few notices or even names occur. The only noted one was Isabella, who ruled between 1360 and 1370, and died under excommunication, for having joined with the antipope Clement VII. The last prioress, Joice Acton, received at the dissolution, in 1553, an annual pension of 10l. At this period the revenues were valued at 78l. 8s. in the whole, and 175l. 18s. 11d. clear, which is Dugdale’s valuation.

After the dissolution of religious houses, Westwood with its demesne lands was granted, in the thirteenth year of Henry VIII., to Sir John Pakington, knight, in whose descendants it still continues. The Pakingtons resided first in their mansion at Hampton Lovet; when that was much damaged in the civil wars, they enlarged the house at Westwood, which had been built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as a lodge or banquetting-house, and made it the place of their abode.

One of the most interesting features of the place is the gate-house immediately in front of the mansion; it consists of a double lodge of red brick, with ornamental gables and pinnacles; the gate in the centre is ornamented with the heraldic bearings of the family, the mullet or star of five points, and garb or wheatsheaf; their arms being,—“party per chevron, sable and argent, in chief three mullets, or, in base as many garbs, gules.” These bearings are again sculptured on the parapets, the wheatsheafs doing duty as pilasters, and the mullets serving in place of balusters. The timber work over the gate, with its high pointed roof and pinnacle, is exceedingly picturesque and striking; and is all the more interesting from the rarity of such examples.

Passing through the gate and crossing the small lawn we reach the principal door, to which a flight of stone steps lead. The stone portico is decorated in the style of the Renaissance, but is more purely Italian in its taste than is usually the case in works of that period. An open balustrade is on each side of the steps. Over the centre arch is a regal figure on an eagle. It was probably erected after the civil wars, when Westwood was enlarged and improved.

From the hall, which is an oblong room, presenting no particular features of interest, and from which the library, containing many choice and curious volumes, is reached, and which is situated in the wing to the left, the principal apartments are reached by the staircase, a view of which is here given, and which is chiefly remarkable for the Corinthian capitals, supporting globes, which are placed on the banister. The whole of this staircase is of carved oak, in a fine state of preservation, and exhibiting great finish in execution. By this stair we reach the saloon, a noble apartment, with a double bay-window situated immediately over the hall, and having its walls hung with fine old tapestry of the Elizabethan era, filled with symbolical representations of various kinds, and resembling, in style and character, that exhibited in the great hall at Hampton Court. A magnificent fireplace of elaborate detail, decorated with the royal arms, is in the centre. The roof is of plaster, but is not the original one; it is very florid and elaborate, in the style of Louis Quatorze, yet, however good as a specimen of that peculiar taste, it does not harmonise with the rest of the building.

From the windows of this room a noble view of the country is obtained, which is very undulatory and beautiful; the lake, the avenues, and the antique oaks which surround the house, also add to the beauty of the prospect. The effect of the pavilion opposite each wing of the building is here seen to good effect, surrounded as they generally are with trees and flowers. We engrave one of them. The chimney upon its exterior bracket is a peculiar feature in their design.

Among the portraits preserved in the mansion may be noticed particularly a curious one of Sir John Perrott, Knight of the Bath, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1583 to 1588, who was descended from a very ancient family in Pembrokeshire; his mother was Mary, daughter of James Berkeley, Esq., second son of Lord Berkeley. Sir Robert Naunton, in his “Fragmenta Regalia,” intimates that he was a natural son of Henry VIII. “If we compare,” says he, “his picture, his qualities, gesture, and voice, with those of the king, which memory retains yet amongst us, they will plead strongly that he was a surreptitious child of the blood-royal.” His first appearance at court was early in the reign of Edward VI. He was arraigned of high treason at Westminster, April 17, 1592, and received sentence of death; but did not suffer, for he died five months after in the Tower. He left one son, Sir Thomas Perrot, knight, who married Dorothy, sister to the favourite Earl of Essex, by whom he had one or more daughters. Sir Thomas dying early, his widow married Henry Percy, the ninth Earl of Northumberland, and his estate came afterwards by marriage to the Pakingtons.

Sir John Pakynton, knight, son of the first grantee, was sheriff of this county in the reign of Elizabeth, and a favourite with that queen, who first took notice of him in her progress to Worcester; he followed her to court, and was made a Knight of the Bath. On one occasion he betted with three courtiers, for 3000l., to swim against them from Westminster to Greenwich, but the queen, by her especial command, prevented it. His only court favour on record was a monopoly of starch. Fuller says of him, that, “being a fine but no assiduous courtier, he drew the curtain between himself and the light of the queen’s favour, and then death overwhelmed the remnant, and utterly deprived him of recovery; and they say of him, that had he brought less to the court than he did, he might have carried away more than he brought, for he had a time of it, but was no good husband of opportunity.” He died of gout at the age of seventy-seven, and was buried at Aylesbury, 1625.

Sir John Pakyngton, Bart., knight of the shire 15 Charles I., was a confirmed loyalist, and was tried for his life by the Parliament, his estates were sequestered, and he was plundered for his loyalty, but he ultimately compounded with the parliamentary committee for 5000l., and died in 1679. His house was an asylum for all learned men in these troublesome times. Nash says, “Dr. Hammond, Bishops Morley, Fell, Gunning, and others, always met with hospitable entertainment here, during the troubles of the kingdom. In concert, with some of these, Dorothy, “the good Lady Pakington” as she was called, is supposed to have written “The Whole Duty of Man,” one of the most popular of religious volumes. In defence of her supposed authorship, it is said that Lady Pakington’s letters and prayers are marked with the easy familiar language of that book; and it has been asserted that the original MS. in the handwriting of this lady, and interlined with corrections by Bishop Fell, was sometime in possession of her daughter, Mrs. Ayre, of Rampton, who often affirmed it to be the performance of her mother, adding that she was also the authoress of the “Decay of Christian Piety,” another celebrated religious work. But “upon the whole,” adds Nash, “it still remains a doubt, and it is much easier to prove who was not the author than to assert who was.”

At the Revolution, the doors of Westwood were open to some persons who scrupled to take oaths to King William. Dean Hickes wrote here great part of his “Linguarum Septentrionalium Thesaurus;” and the preface to his “Grammatica Anglo-Saxonica” is dedicated to Sir John Pakington. In it he gives the following declamatory description of Westwood,—“Ibi porticus, atria, propylÆa, horti, ambulacra clausa et subdialia, recta et sinuosa, omnia studiis commoda; ibi luci, silvÆ, nemora, prata, saltus, planities, pascua, et nihil non, quod animum pene a literis abhorrentem et legendum, audiendumve, et quovismodo discendum componere, et conciliare potest.”