WE have chosen Warnham Court to form one of our present series, not because it is, strictly speaking, a “Stately Home,” nor because its history is a stirring one, or the family to whom it belongs can boast of high antiquity in descent, or of nobility in extraction; but simply because it is a good and pleasing and fine example of a modern Elizabethan home, the characteristic features of which have been made suitable for the tastes and requirements of the present day. Its beauties are manifold, but they are purely of that quiet domestic character that is utterly opposed to ostentation and show, and that give it an air of comfort possessed by but few of its more pretentious neighbours.

Sussex is a county of “many mansions,” and they are as varied in their style and their architectural character as they are in the periods in which they have been erected; but few can, out of the whole, compare with Warnham Court in pleasantness of situation, in beauty of external surroundings, or in comfort of internal arrangements. It is a house fitted for hospitality, and for the enjoyment of the guests its owner delights to have around him.

Warnham Court lies near the village of Warnham, which is about three miles from Horsham, and it has a station on the Horsham line of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. The village—and a pretty Sussex village it is—consists mainly of one long street, running north and south, and it has many pleasant residences in its neighbourhood. The Church, dedicated to St. Margaret, is of Norman foundation, but was enlarged and altered in 1848. It consists of “a nave, with north and south aisles, with three chancels, the north of these latter portions being divided from the south aisle by a fine Gothic oak screen. It has a square embattled tower, with clock and six bells. The interior contains several monuments” to the Carills and others.

The Court was built in the Elizabethan style, in place of an older house, in the beginning of this century, by Henry Tredcroft, Esq., of Horsham—a fine old Sussex squire—and, at his death, was sold to Sir Thomas Pelley, Bart., who made it his residence. The whole estate passed, by purchase, from the executors of Sir Henry Pelley, in 1866, to its present owner, Charles T. Lucas, Esq., the head of the well-known firm of Lucas Brothers, the eminent builders and contractors. By Mr. Lucas the house has been remodelled and considerably enlarged, its Elizabethan character being, however, carefully preserved in every detail. He has also built new stabling, lodges, gardener’s house, terraces, garden appliances, &c., at a very large outlay, which, however, has been most judiciously expended.

Mr. Lucas, who is the eldest son of the late James Lucas, Esq., was born in 1820, and in 1840 was married to Miss Tiffin, by whom he has, with other issue, a son, Charles James Lucas, born in 1853, and educated at Harrow. Mr. Lucas is Lord of the Manor of Warnham, a governor of Christ’s Hospital, and a magistrate for the county of Surrey. He is brother to his partner, Thomas Lucas, Esq., of Eastwicke Park, Surrey, who was born in 1822, and in 1852 married Mary Amelia, daughter of Robert Chamberlain, Esq., of Cotton Hall, Norfolk, by whom, with other issue, he has a son, Arthur Charles Lucas, born in 1853, and educated at Harrow: he is a J.P. and D.L. for Suffolk, and a magistrate for Middlesex and Westminster. Both are gentlemen highly esteemed and honoured, and few are more thoroughly entitled to the lofty positions to which, by honourable industry, great ability, and high character, they have attained.

The arms of the family of Lucas are—party per bend, gules and argent, a bend, dovetailed, between six annulets, all counterchanged; a crescent for difference. Crest—a demi-griffin, wings expanded, gules, semÉe of annulets, argent. Motto—“Spes et fides.”

The mansion is approached from the principal Lodge Entrance by a drive through the park, which is finely timbered with forest trees of large growth. These are chiefly oaks, of which there are some remarkably fine and gigantic examples. Under these roam innumerable herds of red and fallow deer, which add much to the beauty of the park scenery. The Lodge, with its overhanging roofs, its mullioned windows, its geometrical chimney-shafts, and its advanced porch, is one of the most picturesque and pleasant in the county.

The mansion itself is situated on an eminence, and commands extensive views of the surrounding country. On the east side is the Carriage Entrance, which is a spacious gravelled court-yard, enclosed next the park by a stone balustrade. On the south side is the South or Grand Terrace, a fine promenade walk some six hundred feet in length by twenty feet in width, adorned with statuary, and overhung and shaded by magnificent trees. This terrace is supported, at an elevation from the park of about ten feet, by a massive stone wall and elegantly designed balustrade. In the recesses are fine examples of sculpture, and the balustrade itself supports a number of elegant vases, terminals, and other ornaments, placed at regular distances. The park from this point slopes gently away till it ends in a fine ornamental Lake. Looking to the eastward, down a lovely glade in the park, another and more magnificent piece of water, covering an area of over thirty acres, is seen in the distance.

On the right, while passing along to the west end of this terrace, stands the Conservatory. It is filled with the choicest exotic palms, tree ferns, and flowering plants; and in the centre, on a massive marble base, stands a magnificent sculptured group of figures in white marble. The floor is geometrical in pattern, and the appointments, the vases, the flower-stands, &c., are all characterized by good taste in their arrangement.

The surrounding grounds are beautifully undulating and diversified, and comprise the Flower Garden, Croquet Lawn, and American Garden. The latter is situated in a natural dip of the grounds, and is completely encircled and sheltered by a dense mass of oaks and other forest trees, at the foot of which is a broad belt of common laurel, rhododendron, &c. Then follows a winding walk, encircling about an acre of grass lawn, on which are planted masses of azalea, rhododendron, kalmea, andromeda, specimen coniferÆ, &c., the whole producing a strikingly pleasing effect. Arrived at the end of this terrace, the visitor descends, by means of a broad flight of steps, to another terrace walk nearly a quarter of a mile in length, and flanked for most of that distance on each side with masses of rhododendrons alternated with some fine specimens of Cedrus deodara and the Chinese juniper. Again descending by another flight of steps to the left, access is gained to the Rose Garden. This “garden of roses,” which is of perfect Eastern loveliness, takes the form of a half-circle, the whole of which is filled with the choicest roses, the outer line being backed by a broad belt of flowering rhododendrons. Some idea may be formed of the size and importance of this Rose Garden from the fact that it contains upwards of a thousand standard roses, and nearly as many dwarf roses, and these comprise examples of every colour, shade, and variety that are worth cultivating. The effect, when these are fully in flower, is enchanting in the extreme.

In close proximity to this, but shut out by a high wall covered with Magnolia grandiflora, are the Forcing and Plant Houses: these occupy three sides of a square. Passing through the upper side, which is a range of span-roofed houses, we find it embraces a Show House (kept gay with flowers the year round), Fernery, Plant, Stove, and Camellia House, in which latter is a plant of the old double white camellia twenty feet across, and rather more than that in height, besides many other fine specimens of those choicest and most beautiful of flowers. Leaving this house, the visitor passes through about two hundred feet in length of Vineries and Peach Houses, filled with their luscious treasures in different stages of growth. Thus the third side of the square is gained. This is another range of span Plant Houses, the centre division being a Rose House, planted chiefly with tea-scented roses. In the centre of this square, and running parallel with the two end ranges, is a large late Peach House, 65 feet long by 24 feet wide: this spans the walk which connects this square with the lower terrace.

At the back of these houses are the Kitchen Gardens, which comprise about four acres: these are well walled, and have a good wall to the south. The soil being a retentive clay, fruit trees, as well as most vegetables, thrive well. Here, also, are extensive ranges of pits used for forcing early vegetables, pot vines, melons, cucumbers, and bedding plants, of which latter about thirty thousand are grown and planted annually. Here, too, are the Orchid House, containing many valuable plants; Gardenia House; and range of Fig Houses. Covering the back wall of the range of Vineries before alluded to, and facing the Kitchen Gardens, are the Fruit Rooms, Mushroom House, Potting Sheds—also the young men’s rooms: these are spacious, and contain every convenience for their comfort. Too much credit cannot be given Mr. Lucas for the manner in which he thus studies the comfort of his employÉs, both in this and in other particulars.

The most striking feature in the Kitchen Gardens is the Head Gardener’s Cottage. This is a picture of architectural beauty, and, from its elevated position, commands a view of every part of the gardens, as well as most extensive prospects of the surrounding country. Not only has the external appearance of this model cottage been made matter of study, but the interior, also, is replete with every domestic convenience. It is one of the most charming of residences, and its occupant, Mr. Lucas’s head gardener, is one of the most accomplished in his profession. To his good taste and skill much of the beauty and attractiveness of the place is due.

The north side of these gardens is bounded by a newly planted Orchard, containing above a hundred fine standard trees of all the best varieties of apples, pears, plums, &c. This is followed by about two acres planted as a Pinetum, in which are many valuable and promising young specimen coniferÆ. This is continued down to the north carriage drive, where it is bounded by a belt of evergreen shrubs, &c. It may not be out of place here to add that the whole of these gardens owe their existence, as well as their present state of high keeping, to their present estimable owner, who has spared no expense in their formation or subsequent management, and whose love of the beautiful, whether in Nature or in Art, is unbounded.

The internal arrangements of the house—which, besides all the customary reception and state apartments and the domestic offices, contains an unusual number of bed-rooms—are all that can be desired, both for elegance and for home comforts; and the furnishing and appointments are such as eminently to entitle Warnham Court to be ranked as a home of taste. Mr. Lucas is a liberal patron of Art, and both here and at his town mansion the walls are hung with pictures of matchless excellence and of great price. They are chiefly by modern, and most of them by British, artists: a list of them would include nearly all the best painters of the age.

The park is some three hundred and fifty acres in extent, the farm occupies about six hundred acres more, and the pleasure-grounds add another fifty acres to the total, so that Warnham Court is a fine and noble property, and one unmatched in its district.

It would ill become us, in any notice of the parish of Warnham, to omit the mention of one of its worthies—Percy Bysshe Shelley. This ill-fated, but gifted, poet was born at Field Place, on Broad-bridge Heath, Warnham, on the 4th of August, 1792. He was the grandson of Sir Bysshe Shelley, Bart., of Castle Goring, who married twice, and had, by his first wife, with other issue, a son and successor, Sir Timothy Shelley, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Pinfold, Esq., of Etchingham, in Surrey: their eldest son was the poet. Percy Bysshe Shelley received his first education from the Rev. Mr. Edwards, vicar of Warnham, and was then sent to school at Brentford, with his young cousin, Thomas Medwin. At thirteen Shelley was sent to Eton. At eighteen, having previously written much poetry, he produced his “Queen Mab;” and in 1810 he entered University College, Oxford. “At the age of nineteen he published a pamphlet embodying the arguments of Voltaire and the false philosophy of that school, which was speedily circulated amongst those in authority.”

This reckless act coloured all his subsequent life: it led to his expulsion from college, to the breaking off of a match with his cousin, and to his being discarded by his father. Soon afterwards young Shelley married Miss Westbrook, at Gretna Green, and resided first at Keswick, next in Ireland (where he published some political pamphlets), and afterwards in Wales. After three years of married life and the birth of two children, Shelley and his wife separated in 1814, and he went to Switzerland, where he formed the friendship of Lord Byron, which closed only with his death. In 1816 he was recalled from Switzerland by the tragic fate of his wife, who committed suicide by drowning; and shortly afterwards, her father, Mr. Westbrook, succeeded in an application to deprive him of the guardianship of his children. Soon after the death of his wife, Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of the notorious free-thinker William Godwin, and herself the authoress of “Frankenstein,” and they settled at Great Marlow, where he published his “Alastor” and “The Revolt of Islam.” In 1818 they quitted England for Italy, and from that time to his death every year “gave evidence of Shelley’s untiring intellectual energy in the production of numerous poems and other pieces,” including “Adonais,” “The Cenci,” “Prometheus Bound,” &c. After spending some time in Rome and Naples and various places, “Mr. and Mrs. Shelley engaged a house at Lerici, on the Bay of Spezzia, and it was here that he met his premature and lamented death. On the 8th of July, 1822, he set sail in his little schooner-yacht, a vessel wholly unfit to encounter the squalls of the Mediterranean, accompanied by his friend Captain Williams, to meet Leigh Hunt, who was with Lord Byron at Pisa. A few days afterwards Shelley left his friends, intending to return with Captain Williams, and set sail, in spite of the unfavourable change in the weather, with an English boy, named Charles Vivian, added to the party. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from the shore, when a storm was driven over the sea which enveloped all in darkness; the cloud passed onwards, but the little schooner had vanished. At the end of a dreadful week of suspense the worst fears of his friends were confirmed. The body of Shelley was washed on shore near Via Reggio, that of Captain Williams at a spot about four miles distant, but that of Charles Vivian was not found for three weeks afterwards. The bodies were burnt in accordance with the Italian laws of quarantine, in the presence of Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, and Shelley’s ashes were afterwards enclosed in an urn, and deposited in the English cemetery at Rome, by the side of his infant son William.” “You will have heard by this time,” says Byron, when writing to Moore on the 2nd of August, 1822, “that Shelley and another gentleman (Captain Williams) were drowned about a month ago (a month yesterday), in a squall off the Gulf of Spezzia. There is thus another man gone about whom the world was ill-naturedly, and ignorantly, and brutally mistaken. It will perhaps do him justice now, when he can be no better for it.” Dying before his father (Sir Timothy), Shelley did not, of course, succeed to the family estates; but, on the death of Sir Timothy in 1844, the son of the poet succeeded, and is the present head of the family, Sir Percy Florence Shelley, Bart., of Field Place, Warnham.

Around Warnham the neighbourhood is one unbroken succession of pleasant scenery and of delightful “nooks and corners;” and the district is studded with many pleasant residences. Within a few miles, too, are Horsham, with its fine old church and other objects of interest; St. Leonard’s Forest, Longhurst, Graylands, Rusper, and a score or two other places that are full of beauty and interest, and show well what charms are furnished by the scenery of Sussex.