[1] The principal architects employed were Mr. Allason and Mr. Abraham; Mr. Loudon also had something to do, later on, with the laying out of the grounds.

[2] “Alton Towers and Dove-Dale.” By Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A. (Black and Co.) The Roman Catholic establishment just referred to is close to the pretty little town of Alton, in which the visitor will find an excellent and comfortable inn (the “White Hart”). The intention of the founder, and of the architect, Pugin, in the establishment of the picturesque pile of buildings referred to, was to found an institution, lecture-hall, schools, &c., for the town of Alton; a large cloistered establishment for nuns, a chapel, and a hospital for decayed priests. The chapel alone is finished, and in it service is regularly performed by a resident priest, who lives in one part of the monastic buildings. The schools, too, are in use, and the building erected as a residence for the master is used as a small nunnery. In the chapel, which is elegantly fitted up, are buried John, Earl of Shrewsbury, the founder of the hospital, who died in 1852; his Countess (Maria Theresa), who died in 1856, to each of whom are splendid monumenta

[3] Jewitt’s “Alton Towers and Dove Dale.”

[4] Parts of this account are borrowed from Mr. S. C. Hall’s description of Cobham, printed in 1848 in the “Baronial Halls.” During the summer of 1867, Mr. Hall revisited the venerable mansion, its gardens and park, with the members of the Society of Noviomagus.

[5] “Cobham, anciently Coptham; that is, the head of a village, from the Saxon copt, a head.”—Philipot. Survey of Kent.

[6] Sir Thomas Broke and Joan de Cobham, his wife, had ten sons and four daughters. It is their tomb which occupies so prominent a position in the chancel of Cobham Church.

[7] Under a most iniquitous sentence, Raleigh was executed fifteen years after it was pronounced; and Cobham (by whose treachery the brave knight was chiefly convicted) had been a houseless wanderer meanwhile, perishing unpitied and unwept. Of their intimacy there is no doubt; and it is more than probable, that the old Hall we are describing was often the home of Sir Walter Raleigh when conspicuous as “the noble and valorous knight.” It is grievous to think that so great a “worthy” should have been sacrificed to the pitiful cowardice of so “poor a soul” as the last of the Cobhams—the degenerate scion of a munificent and valorous race.

[8] Sir Joseph Williamson was the son of a clergyman of Cumberland. He held various appointments under the Crown, was President of the Royal Society, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

[9] “Lady Katherine O’Brien died in November following; upon which her two-thirds of this manor and seat, which, with the rest of the estates of the late Duke of Richmond, purchased by Sir Joseph Williamson, descended to Edward, Lord Clifton and Cornbury (son of Edward, Lord Cornbury, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, and Catherine his wife, the only daughter and heir of the said Lady Katherine, by her first husband, Henry Lord O’Brien), and on his death, without issue, in 1713, to his only surviving sister and heir, the Lady Theodosia Hyde.”—Hasted’s Kent.

[10] In 1718 Sir Richard Temple, Bart., was created Baron and Viscount Cobham (the Temples, it appears, being in the female line connected with the Brokes), and this title is still held and enjoyed by his descendant the present Duke of Buckingham, K.G., whose titles are Baron Cobham, of Cobham in Kent; Viscount Cobham of the same place; Earl Nugent (in the peerage of Ireland); Earl Temple; Marquis of Chandos, Marquis of Buckingham, and Duke of Buckingham.

[11] The architect is C. F. Hayward, F.S.A. It is a handsome building, immediately fronting the Terminus, of a style which may be described as a free treatment of Gothic architecture, without any of the special characteristics which refer to one particular date—in fact, it is a modern design, well adapted to its purposes and position, and of substantial build, being of granite and limestone—combined with lightness and even elegance in certain details of terra-cotta work, from the well-known manufactory of Blashfield of Stamford.

From the lantern tower of the hotel, rising far above the buildings near, and also from some of the windows in the upper floor, is to be obtained a magnificent view of the Sound, with the near Breakwater, and the Eddystone Lighthouse, “far out at sea;” while the grassy slopes of lovely Mount Edgcumbe and its tree-capped heights are seen to rise in front, overhanging the land-locked harbour, called Hamoaze.

[12] The grounds are on Mondays freely open to all comers; but on any day visitors will be admitted to them by application at the Manor Office, Stonehouse, near to the ferry by which passengers are conveyed across. There is, however, a road for carriages; but that implies a drive of twelve miles there and twelve miles back, besides the drive of five or six miles round the Park.

[13] The date of the erection of Maker Church is not known. It was originally dedicated to St. Julian, and there is a well near the church still designated St. Julian’s well.

[14] The name of Cothele is conjectured to be hence derived: coit being a wood in ancient Cornish, and hel a river: the wood by the river, or, in a mixture of British and Old English, the hall in the wood, healle being a hall or manor-house. The name occurs in many very ancient records, temp. Henry III., “William Cothele engages to defend by his body, in duel, the right of Roger de Wanton and Katerine, his wife, to lands in Somerset against William de Deveneys.”

[15] It is now the residence of the Dowager Countess Mount-Edgcumbe, who, we rejoice to know, cherishes every portion of the venerable mansion, with its decorations and contents. It is made thoroughly comfortable, yet without in the slightest degree impairing its “natural” character; scarcely, indeed, displacing a single relic of antiquity, of which every room contains some singular, interesting, and often beautiful, examples. The people are admitted freely to the woods and grounds; and parties visit there nearly every day—a steamboat running daily, in summer, up the Tamar, from Plymouth.

[16] Carew describes the building as “auncient, large, strong, and faire;” he was born in 1555, and wrote before 1600; and would scarcely have described a building as “auncient,” which had been erected only a century before his time. He describes also the chapel as “richly furnished by the devotion of times past.”

[17] At Watcombe, a pretty village two miles from Torquay, there has recently been established a manufactory of works in terra-cotta. They originated in the discovery of clay of remarkable fineness and delicacy, and beauty of colour. The productions issued by the works are of great excellence in design and execution: they are deservedly popular.

[18] For several of the engravings that are introduced into the following papers upon Alnwick Castle we desire to tender our best thanks to his Grace the Duke of Northumberland; they were originally printed in a history of the illustrious family of the Percies, of which a few copies were presented to private friends.

[19] Thus writes one of the Lords Wardens, temp. Eliz.: “God blessed me so well in all my designs as I never made journey in vain, but did what I went for;” i.e., “hanging or heading.”

[20] The name of Alnwick has been variously spelt at different periods. Thus, among other ways, it has been spelt Alnawic, Alnewyke, Alnewyc, Alnewick, Annwik, Annewic, Annewyke, Anwik, Anwick, &c. Formerly it appears to have been pronounced with the Scotch twang, An-ne-wick, as though spelt in three syllables. It is now by all natives of the place called Annick. Aln (the name of the river), like the names of our rivers, hills, and mountains, is Celtic, or ancient British, and was given by one of the earliest tribes settling in Britain; for in Hiberno-Celtic we have Alain, signifying white, bright, or clear. Alnwick (wick being a street, village, or dwelling-place), therefore, is the town on the bright clear river.

[21] The first Sir Hugh Smithson died in 1670: he had a nephew who was a physician in Sussex, and spent almost all his fortune also in the royal cause. His son again was a physician, and practised in London, and married a daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, of Lincolnshire. The fact of these two collaterals being medical men, probably gave rise to the story of Sir Hugh having been brought up to be an apothecary.

[22] Mr. Burrell had four daughters, of whom the eldest married Captain Bennett, R.N.; the second married Lord Algernon Percy, second son of the first duke, and was grandmother of the present Duke of Northumberland; the third sister was the second Duchess of Northumberland; and the youngest sister married, first, the Duke of Hamilton, and, secondly, the Marquess of Exeter. Mr. Burrell’s only son married a peeress in her own right, and was himself created Baron Gwydyr.

[23] Minute and most faithful descriptions of the restorations at Alnwick Castle are given by Mr. George Tate, F.G.S., of Alnwick, in his copious and excellent “History of the Borough, Castle, and Barony of Alnwick,” a work which does honour to the literature, not of the north only, but of England, and will always be highly esteemed as a valuable contribution to that important department of the national literature which comprehends our topographical histories.

[24] There is, however, one of comparatively recent date, built on the site of the ancient gate: it is still called the Potter Gate.

[25] The fine five-light east window of St. Paul’s Church is filled with some of the most remarkable stained glass in England; it was executed by Max AinmÜller at Munich, in 1856, from cartoons designed and drawn by Mr. Dyce, R.A., and is a memorial window erected by public subscription to commemorate the noble founder of the church.

[26] While serving in the Crusade under Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Ralph Fulborne visited the friars who were then established upon Mount Carmel; and attracted, it is said, by their piety and holy lives, he brought back with him to his Northumbrian home some of the Carmelite brethren, and built them a house in his own land, which might serve in some degree to remind them of their Syrian Carmel: for at Hulne they found a hill, with a river flowing at the foot of it, and around was a forest, just as a forest had surrounded them when far away in the East.

[27] The park and grounds are always freely open to “the people,” and, on stated occasions, parts of the castle. This is a boon of magnitude, not only to the inhabitants of the town and district, but to many who come from far distances to obtain free air and healthful recreation from Nature where her aspect is most cheering and her influence most invigorating. On the 20th of August, 1868, on arriving at the Alnwick Station, we met upwards of 2,000 men, women, and children, who had been enjoying a day in the Park. It was the annual pic-nic of persons employed by the Jarrow Chemical Works (Newcastle-on-Tyne), they were accompanied, not only by the overseers, but the partners of the firm. A more orderly crowd it would have been impossible to have met anywhere.

[28] A further notice of Hobbes and his works will be found in our account of Chatsworth, on a subsequent page.

[29] In Domesday it is stated that in the time of King Edward the Confessor the Castle of Arundel yielded 40s. for a mill, 20s. for three feasts, and 20s. for a pasture. This is of itself sufficient evidence of the high antiquity—going back to Saxon times—of the Castle of Arundel.

[30] It is a curious fact that the ground-rents accruing from streets in the Strand, London—Arundel and Norfolk Streets—are still devoted to the improving and repairing of Arundel Castle. In 1786, considerable arrears being due, the tenants were called upon to pay them; but refused, unless it were agreed to devote them, according to ancient tenure, to such improvements and repairs. The then Duke of Norfolk was compelled to yield a matter in serious dispute; and the result was a thorough restoration of the venerable castle, which, up to that time, had been almost such a ruin as it was left by Sir William Waller during the war between the King and the Parliament. It is said that in these restorations, between the years 1786 and 1816, no less a sum than £600,000 was expended.

[31] In 1863 Penshurst was visited by the Kent and Sussex ArchÆological Society, when Mr. Parker, of Oxford (to whom archÆology owes a large debt of gratitude), read a paper descriptive of the seat of the Sidneys. From that paper we shall quote:—“Mr. Parker said that in the time of William the Conqueror there was a house of importance in that place, occupied by a family named after it, Penchester (the castle on the hill), which showed that the house was fortified at that time, doubtless according to the fashion of the age, with deep trenches and mounds and wooden palisades, as represented in the Bayeux tapestry; and the house within the fortifications must have been a timber house, because if a Norman keep had been there built, there would certainly be some remains of it.”

[32] To the park and to the several state rooms the public are on fixed days freely, graciously, and most generously admitted; and the history of the several leading attractions is related by attentive and intelligent custodians.

[33] Dr. Waagen writes thus of this marvellous work of the great master:—“There is in these features a brutal egotism, an obstinacy, and a harshness of feeling such as I have never yet seen in any human countenance. In the eyes, too, there is the suspicious watchfulness of a wild beast, so that I became quite uncomfortable from looking at it for a long time; for the picture, a masterpiece of Holbein, is as true in the smallest details as if the king himself stood before you.”

[34] It is a pretty legend—and one to which we direct the attention of artists—that while Guy was doing penance as a hermit, his lady was mourning his absence, and praying for his return at the castle. It was her daily custom to bestow alms upon the suffering, sorrowful, and needy; and dole was, among others, frequently given to the husband by the unconscious wife. He was dying at length, and then made himself known to her by the transmission of a ring. So she watched, and prayed, and comforted, beside his death-bed, surviving him but fourteen days; and they were both buried in the cave where the poor penitent had lived and died.

[35] For an account of this stained glass see the “ArchÆological Journal,” No. 84.

[36] The bridge was erected at the commencement of the present century by George Greville, Earl of Warwick. It is a single arch, forming the segment of a circle, 105 feet in span.

[37] A very pretty little book, entitled “The Peacock at Rowsley,” by John Joseph Briggs. Esq., deserves a friendly recognition. As the journal of a naturalist, an angler, and a lover of nature, it is so sweetly written as to place its author, as a worthy associate, side by side with dear “Old Izaak” or “White of Selborne.”

[38] The old palace is now the stables; its roof of arches, supported by corbels, is intact, and singularly beautiful. Immediately underneath one of the windows is a stone with the inscription, “The last charger of Arthur, Duke of Wellington (descended from his Waterloo charger, Copenhagen), was presented by the second duke to Mary, Marchioness of Salisbury, June 18, 1852, and was buried near this spot Feb. 24, 1861.”

[39] Some highly interesting information upon this subject will be found in Mr. Jewitt’s “Chatsworth.”

[40] For the loan of the engravings of the Church, the Children’s Cottage, the Statue of Sir R. Leveson, and the View from Tittensor we are indebted to Messrs. Albut and Daniel, to whom we desire to express our best thanks.

[41] These are the charges which, according to Shakspere, Jack Cade urged against the Lord Say:—

“Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun, and a verb; and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison; and because they could not read thou hast hanged them; when, indeed, only for that cause they have been most worthy to live.”

[42] For an account of this lady and the noble House of Manners see “Belvoir Castle,” pages 6-14.

[43] See page 39 for an account of this lady and her family.

[44] The old castle of Henderskelf, an ancient seat of the Greystocks, was built in the reign of Edward III.; it passed into the hands of the Howards by the marriage of Belted Will with Bessie of the braid apron, “the word Henderskelf; meaning hundred-hill, or the hill where the hundreds meet.”

[45] This bowl and the inscription are still preserved in the Almshouse

[46] We believe, however, these interesting objects have been removed.

[47] The prioress was, in right of her title, a baroness of England. It was of the Benedictine order.

[48] A catalogue raisonnÉ of the marbles is printed in the “Salisbury Volume” of the ArchÆological Institute (1849), by Charles F. Newton, Esq., M.A., of the British Museum.

[49] The following is this curious report:—

John Robinson, Esq., Secretary-General of Woods.

Report of Acorns planted in and about Windsor Great Park, &c.

[50] We cordially recommend readers, for a description, with engravings, of many of the principal inscribed stones in this collection, to consult our friend Dr. Bruce’s superb work, the “Lapidarium Septentrionale,” in which many of them are figured; to this we are indebted for the accompanying beautiful engravings, which have been placed at our disposal by Dr. Bruce.

[51] The dimensions of some of these trees are as follows:—The Douglas Fir (Abies Douglasii), 75 ft. in height, 6½ ft. circumference a yard from the ground, and 49 ft. across from point to point of the branches; Abies Menziesii, height 65 ft., girth 6 ft. at a yard from the ground; Picea Cephalonica, 50 ft. high, girth 4 ft. at a yard from the base; Abies Canadensis, 42 ft. in height, girth 3 ft.; Picea pinsapo, 40 ft. high; and the “Adam and Eve” ash-trees, one of which measures 21 ft. in girth at 5 ft. from the ground. For these dimensions we are indebted to that admirable publication, the Gardener’s Chronicle, in which an excellent account of the grounds of Lowther appeared. To that publication we have to express our obligation for the woodcut of the north front of the castle. “A.D. MDXCVIII ex gravi peste, quÆ regionibus hisce incubuit, obierunt apud Penrith 2260, Kendal 2500, Richmond 2200, Carlisle 1196. Posteri, Avertite vos et vivite.”

[52] We need only to name one or two of Jacob Thompson’s pictures—the “Harvest Home in the time of Queen Elizabeth,” the “Highland Ferry Boat,” “The Proposal,” “Ulleswater from Sharrow Bay,” the “Highland Bride’s Separation,” “Going to Church,” the “Mountain Ramblers,” “Proserpine,” “Sunny Hours of Childhood,” the “Pet Lamb,” “The Signal,” “Rush-bearing,” “The Vintage,” and “Homeward Bound”—to direct attention to the marvels of high Art which issue from his pencil.

[53] “Transactions of the Architectural Society of the Diocese of Lincoln, 1860.”

[54] Those who desire to know more of the neighbourhood cannot do better than consult Mr. White’s “Worksop, the Dukery, and Sherwood Forest:” it is an interesting, valuable, and useful book. To it we are indebted for the engraving of the Greendale Oak on page 354.

[55] “Le Methode nouvelle & Invention extraordinaire de dresser les Chevaux, les travailler selon la nature et parfaire la nature par la subtilitÉ de l’art; la quelle n’a jamais ÉtÉ treuvÉe que. Par Le tres noble, haut, et tres-puissant Prince Guillaume Marquis et Comte De Newcastle, Viconte de Mansfield, Baron de Bolsover et Ogle, Seigneur de Cavendish, Bothel et Hepwel; Pair d’Angleterre, Qui eut la charge et l’honneur d’estre Gouverneur du Sereniss’me Prince de Galles en sa jeunesse et maintainant Roy de la Grande Bretagne; Et d’avantage qui est Lieutenant pour le Roy de la ComtÉ de Nottingham et la Forest de Sherwood; Capitaine-General en toutes provinces outre la Riviere de Trent et autres endroits du Royaume d’Angleterre, Gentil-homme de la Chambre du Lit du Roy; Conseiller d’Etat et Prive; et Chevalier de l’Ordre tres-noble de la Iartiere, etc. A Anvers, chez Iacques Van Meurs, l’an M.DC.LVIII.”