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:—

They boast their descent from Tollemache, a Saxon Lord of Bentley and Stoke Tollemache in Oxfordshire, in the sixth century. In the Domesday Book, the name is written Toolmag, and subsequently Thalemache, Tolemache, Talmage, Tallmash, and Tollemache. For nearly thirteen hundred years, the Family has dwelt in Suffolk county, flourishing in uninterrupted male succession, until so recently as 1821, when, by the death of the late Earl of Dysart, the title became extinct, and with it the direct male line of the long famous race. They acquired the rich estate at Helmingham by the marriage of Lionel Tollemache, of Bentley, Esquire, with Edith, daughter and sole heiress of William Joyce, of Crekes Hall, in Helmingham, who in the first year of the eighth Henry was found, by requisition, to hold the Manor of Bentley by knight’s service. He served the office of High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in the fourth year of the same reign. By this Lionel Tollemache, Helmingham Hall was built. He died in the early part of the reign of Edward the Sixth, and was succeeded by his son, Lionel Tollemache, Esq., who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, who, during her progress through the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk in 1561, honoured him with her presence at Helmingham Hall, on August 14th and four following days, “where she was entertained with great splendour and hospitality.” During the visit, Her Majesty stood Godmother to her Host’s eldest son, Lionel: to commemorate this event, she presented to him, as we have stated, a Lute, still preserved as an heir-loom in the Family.

His son, the first Baronet, was advanced to the dignity by James the First, in 1611. He died at Helmingham on the 5th of September, 1612, and was buried there on the same day (in the Parish Register the interment is entered, “Et eodem die sepultus fuit).” Helmingham Hall continued in his male descendants until the death of Wilbraham Tollemache, Earl of Dysart, in 1821[35], when it devolved upon his sister Louisa, Countess of Dysart, and upon her death in 1840, to the present proprietor, John Tollemache, Esq., M.P. for North Cheshire, eldest son of the late Admiral Tollemache, grandson to Lady Jane Halliday, sister to Lionel, fifth Earl, and Wilbraham, sixth and last Earl of Dysart.

The Earldom of Dysart came to the family by the marriage of Sir Lionel Tollemache, Bart., with the Lady Elizabeth Murray, eldest daughter and heiress of William Murray, first Earl of Dysart; upon the death of her father she succeeded to the title. Sir Lionel died in 1669, and was buried with great pomp at Helmingham on the 25th of March, in the same year. The Countess married secondly at Petersham, in Surrey, February 17, 1671-2, to John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, and Knight of the Garter.

The Tollemaches—although classing amongst the most ancient families of the realm, and for centuries preserving an unbroken link—appear never to have been very emulous of distinction. The name scarcely appears upon the Roll of Fame: neither in the Senate nor at the Bar have they achieved for it high repute; nor does it occupy a conspicuous place in the annals of war of any period—from the Conquest down to the existing age[36].

In the immediate vicinity of the Hall, are several primitive and highly picturesque Cottages, many of which are of a date coeval with that of the Mansion: and the very ancient and venerable town of Ipswich is inconceivably rich in architectural antiquities.

Helmingham Church stands by the south side of the Park. The Tower was built in 1487, as appears by the copy of an agreement now in the Church chest, between “John Talmage, Esquier, Maistress Elizabeth, his wyff, Edmund Joyce, Gent., John Wythe, and William Holme on the one part, and Thomas Aldrych, of North Lopham, Mason, on the other, for thirty pounds.” It is not known by whom the Church was built; but in 1258, Dame Margaret Creke, who founded the Nunnery of Flixton, near Bungay, presented to it; and the Prioress and Nuns of Flixton presented to it till 1312, when she exchanged the patronage for that of Flixton, with the Bishop of Norwich; from that time the Bishops presented to it till the Reformation, when the Crown claimed and has presented to it ever since. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. About a foot and a half from the ground, on the south side of the steeple, carved in stone letters of a foot high, is the following inscription, in old English letters:—

The Steeple is a square tower of Flints, embattled on the top: on the south side are the arms of Tollemache—three shields—of the date 1543, when it was built. It is supported by four buttresses, all standing diagonally. On the west side, near the ground, was an inscription, now gone.

The Nave of the Church is of the date of the fourteenth century, and contains a fine South Door of the then prevalent style of architecture. The Windows, as well as the Roof, are of a later age—probably about 1540. The Chancel is quite modern, but is now undergoing alterations and repairs; the result of which will be to assimilate it with other parts of the venerable building. In reference to this matter, also, high praise is due to the present proprietor of Helmingham, inasmuch as he is removing many of the blots left upon the sacred edifice by the bad taste or heedless indifference of his predecessors.

Both the Chancel and Nave are crowded with monuments commemorating the heroic deeds of members of the Family of Tollemache. The most remarkable and interesting fills nearly the whole of the southern side of the nave; and it is so lofty, that part of the roof has been displaced to make room for it. It contains, in niches, four figures of men kneeling with their hands clasped and erect before them, the three first in a row, the fourth above them; they are bareheaded, with swords by their sides, and in the dress of the 17th century. We learn from a rhymed inscription underneath each figure that these are the effigies of the four first of the Tollemaches who settled at Helmingham—the monument to their honour being erected by the fifth.[37]