accept nothing but the best and purest in this as in any other branch of
fine art.
There is one other possible way of accounting for the prevalence of
these all-pervading obelisks. The name of the place is taken from a
conical wooded hill (_mons acutus_). The same play on a word, a
favourite fashion of Elizabethan times, and a custom in heraldry from a
remoter antiquity, is seen in the shield of the ancient Montacute
family, where the three sharp peaks denote that the surname had the same
origin. The connexion of this name with the acute peak or obelisk form
would therefore the more readily commend itself to the Elizabethan mind.
The house has never gone into other hands, the present owner, Mr. W. R.
Phelips, being the descendant of the founder.