circumstance which has just come to my knowledge; and, though an entire
stranger, I take the liberty of addressing you, being aware of your
zeal for the _honour_ and welfare of the Catholic Church. What, then,
will be your grief and indignation (if you have not already heard it)
at being told that—fearing the bazaar, in behalf of the Monastery of
St. Bernard, may prove unsuccessful—it has been thought that more
people would be drawn to it were the _monks to hold the stalls_! Was
there ever such a scandal given to our most holy religion? It may
have been done ignorantly or innocently; but it is enough to make a
Catholic of feeling shudder! _I_ am not in a situation to have the
slightest influence in putting an end to this most dreadful proceeding;
but knowing you to be well acquainted with the head of the English
Catholics—the good Earl of Shrewsbury—would you not write to him,
and request him to use his influence (which must be great) in stopping
the _sacrilege_, for such it really is? Think of your Holy Church thus
_degraded_ and made a by-word in the mouths of Protestants! I know how
you love and venerate her. Aid her then now, and attempt to rescue her
from this calamity! Pray excuse the freedom with which I have written,
and believe me, dear sir, A SINCERE LOVER OF MY CHURCH, BUT AN ENEMY TO
THE PROTESTANT PRINCIPLE OF BAZAARS.’
“Pugin wrote immediately to the earl in an impassioned strain, but,
in reference to this trick, when the light had at length dawned upon
him, in writing to Lord Shrewsbury, he says—‘I have found out at
last that the alarm about the monks at the bazaar was all a hoax; and
rumour mentions some ladies, not far distant from the Towers, as the
authors. I must own it was capitally done, and put me into a perfect
fever for some days. I only read the letter late in the day, and sent a
person all the way to the General Post Office to save the post. I never
gave the day of the month a moment’s consideration. I shall be better
prepared for the next 1st of April.’
“The school, which was intended also as a literary institution, a hall,
and a lecture-room for Alton, will be seen to the right on entering
the grounds; the house, to the left, now occupied as a convent, being
intended for a residence of the schoolmaster. In the original design
the cloistered part of the establishment was intended to be the convent
(the chapel being a nuns’ chapel), and the parish church of Alton
was intended to be rebuilt in the same style as the splendid church
at Cheadle. The hospital was to be for decayed priests. The chapel
is a beautiful little building, highly decorated in character, and
remarkably pure and good in proportions. In it, to the north of the
altar, are buried Earl John and his Countess, and to the south Earl
Bertram. The following are the inscriptions on the brasses to their
memory:—
“‘Hic jacet corpus Johannis quondam Comitis Salopiæ XVI. qui hunc
Sacellum et hospitium construere fecit A.D. MDCCCXLIV. Orate pro anima
misserimi peccatoris obiit Neapoli die IX No MDCCCLII Ætatis suæ LXI.’
“‘In Memoriam Mariæ Teresiæ, Johannis Comitis Salopiæ Viduæ, Natæ
Wexfordiæ XXII Maii MDCCXCV. Parissis obiit IV Junii MDCCCLVI quorum
animas Viventium Amor Sanctissimus incor unum conflasse Videbatur
corpora eodem sepulchro deposita misericordiam ejusdem redemptoris
expectant. R.I.P.’
“‘Orate pro anima Bertrami Artheri Talbot XVII Com: Salop: ob: die:
10º August 1856. Requiescat in pace.’
“In the cloisters is another beautiful brass, on which is the following
inscription:—
“‘Good Christian people of your charity pray for the soul of Mistress
Anne Talbot wife of Will^m Talbot Esquire of Castle Talbot Wexford
who died on the V day of May A.D. MDCCCXLIV. Also for the soul of the
above named Will^m Talbot Esq^{re} who died the II^{nd} day of Aug^t
MDCCCXLIX aged LXXXVI years. May they rest in peace.’
“On a slab on the floor:—
“‘Of your charity pray for the soul of Sister Mary Joseph Healy of the
Order of Mercy. Who died 4th August 1857 in the 31st year of her age,
and the 5th of her Religious Profession. R.I.P.’
“On a brass:—
“‘Orato pro anima Domini Caroli quondam Comitis Salopiæ qui obiit VI
die Aprilis anno domini MDCCCXXVII Ætatis suæ LXIV.’”[3]
ALTON CHURCH is also worthy of a visit, not because of any special
architectural features which it contains, but because of its commanding
situation and its near proximity to the Castle. It is of Norman
foundation. The village itself (visitors to the locality will be glad
to learn that it contains a very comfortable inn, the “Wheatsheaf”) is
large and very picturesque, and its immediate neighbourhood abounds in
delightful walks and in glorious “bits” of scenery.
DEMON’S DALE—a haunted place concerning which many strange stories are
current—is also about a mile from Alton, and is highly picturesque.
CROXDEN ABBEY (or Crokesden Abbey) is a grand old ruin, within an easy
walk of Alton. It was founded by Bertram de Verdun, owner of Alton
Castle, in 1176.
It will be readily understood that the renown of Alton Towers arises
principally from the garden and grounds by which the mansion is
environed. But if to nature it is indebted for its hills and dells, its
steep ascents and graceful undulations, art has done much to augment
its attractions. It may have been a “desert” when Earl Charles strove,
and successfully, to convert it into a paradise; but the rough material
was ready to his hand, and to taste, with judicious expenditure, the
task was not difficult to make it what it became, and now is—one of
the most exquisitely beautiful demesnes in the British dominions.
COBHAM HALL.
THE county of Kent is one of the pleasantest of the English shires;
rich in cultivated and pictorial beauty, it has been aptly and justly
called “the garden of England.” Patrician trees are found everywhere:
for centuries the hand of ruthless and reckless war has never touched
them; its chalky soil is redolent of health; its pasture lands are
proverbially fertile; its gentle hills are nowhere barren; in many
parts it borders the sea; and to-day, as it did ages ago,—
“It doth advance
A haughty brow against the coast of France;”
the men of Kent are, as they ever have been, and by God’s blessing ever
will be, the “vanguard of liberty.” Moreover, it is rich, above all
other counties, in traditions and antiquities; some of its customs have
continued unchanged for centuries; its ecclesiastical pre-eminence is
still retained; while some of the noblest and most perfect of British
baronial mansions are to be found in the graciously endowed county that
borders the metropolis.
Among the most perfect of its stately mansions is that to which we
introduce the reader—Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley,
Baron Clifton.[4] Its proximity to the metropolis—from which, if we
measure distances by time, it is separated by little more than an
hour—would alone supply a sufficient motive for its selection into
this series. It is situated about four miles south-east of Gravesend,
nearly midway between that town and Rochester, but a mile or so out of
the direct road. The narrow coach-paths which lead to it are shaded by
pleasant hedgerows, and run between lines of hop-gardens—the comely
vineyards of England.
[Illustration: _Cobham Hall._]
The mansion stands in the midst of scenery of surpassing loveliness,
alternating hill and valley, rich in “patrician trees” and “plebeian
underwood,” dotted with pretty cottages, and interspersed with
primitive villages: while here and there are scattered “old houses” of
red brick, with their carved wooden gables and tall twisted chimneys;
and glimpses are caught occasionally of the all-glorious Thames. A
visit to Cobham Hall, therefore, furnishes a most refreshing and
invigorating luxury to dwellers in the metropolis; and the liberality
of its noble owner adds to the rich banquet of Nature as rare a treat
as can be supplied by Art. The Hall, independent of the interest it
derives from its quaint architecture, its fine, although not unmixed,
remains of the Tudor style, contains a gallery of pictures, by the best
masters of the most famous schools, large in number and of rare value.
Before we commence our description of the Hall, the demesne, the
Church, the College, and the village of Cobham,[5] it is necessary that
we supply some information concerning the several families under whose
guardianship they have flourished.
Cobham Hall has not descended from sire to son through many
generations. Its present lord is in no way, or at least but remotely,
connected with the ancient family who for centuries governed the “men
of Kent,” and who, at one period, possessed power second only to that
of the sovereign. That race of bold barons has been long extinct, the
last of them dying in miserable poverty; and if their proud blood is
still to be found within their once princely barony, it runs, probably,
through the veins of some tiller of the soil.
The Cobhams had been famous from the earliest recorded times. In
Philipot’s “Survey of Kent”—1659—it is said that “Cobham afforded a
seat and a surname to that noble and splendid family; and certainly,”
adds the quaint old writer, “this place was the cradle or seminary of
persons who, in elder ages, were invested in places of as signall and
principal a trust or eminence, as they could move in, in the narrow
orbe of a particular county.” In the reign of King John, Henry de
Cobham gave 1,000 marks to the king for his favour. He left three sons,
viz., John, who was Sheriff of Kent, Justice of Common Pleas, and Judge
Itinerant; Reginald, also Sheriff of Kent, Constable of Dover Castle,
and Warden of the Cinque Ports; and William, also Justice Itinerant.
The eldest, John de Cobham, was succeeded by his son John, who in turn
became Sheriff of Kent, one of the Justices of King’s Bench and Common
Pleas, and Baron of the Exchequer. His son Henry de Cobham was Governor
of Guernsey and Jersey, Constable of Dover Castle, and Warden of the
Cinque Ports; so was also, again, _his_ son Henry, who likewise was
Governor of Tunbridge Castle, and was summoned to Parliament 6 to 9
Edward III. He was succeeded by his son John de Cobham, Admiral of the
Fleet, Justice of _Oyer_ and _Terminer_, and Ambassador to France, who
in “10 Richard II. was one of the thirteen appointed by the predominant
lords to govern the realm, but was after impeached for treason, and
had judgment pronounced against him, but obtained pardon, being sent
prisoner to the island of Jersey.” Dying in the ninth year of Henry
IV., he left his granddaughter, Joan, his heiress. This lady married
for her third husband Sir John Oldcastle, who assumed the title of Lord
Cobham. Reginald de Cobham, half brother to John, was Justice of King’s
Bench, an Admiral, an Ambassador to the Pope, and commander of the van
of the army at Crecy. He was succeeded by his son, Reginald de Cobham,
who likewise was succeeded by _his_ son Reginald; he left an only
daughter as heir.
No less than four Kentish gentlemen of the name embarked with the first
Edward in his “victorious and triumphant expedition into Scotland,” and
were knighted for services rendered to that prince in his “successful
and auspicious siege of Caerlaverock.” With Reginald de Cobham, as has
been shown, the male line determined. Joan, his daughter, is said to
have had five husbands, by only one of whom, Sir Reginald Braybrooke,
she left issue, Joan, who being married to Sir Thomas Broke, of the
county of Somerset, Knight, “knitt Cobham, and a large income beside,
to her husband’s patrimony.”[6]
Their eldest son, Sir Edward Broke, was summoned to parliament,
as Baron Cobham, in the 23rd Henry VI. In 1559 Sir William Broke
entertained Queen Elizabeth at Cobham Hall, in the first year of her
reign, “with a noble welcome as she took her progress through the
county of Kent.” His son and successor, Henry, Lord Cobham, was Lord
Warden of the Cinque Ports; but “being too deeply concerned in the
design of Sir Walter Raleigh,” he was deprived of his estates, though
not his life.[7]
His younger brother, George, was executed; but Cobham “lived many
years after in great misery and poverty,” dying in January, 1619;
and sharing the humble grave of some lowly peasant, apart from the
magnificent tombs which cover the remains of his great and gallant
ancestors. He is said, by Weldon, to have been reduced to such extreme
necessity, that “he had starved, but for a trencher-scraper, some time
his servant at court, who relieved him with scraps.”
A sister of Lord Cobham’s was married to Secretary Sir Robert Cecil:
his estimable and greatly beloved lady died in January, 1596-7. She was
also a kinswoman of Sir Walter Raleigh, and in one of his letters to
Cecil he says:—“It is trew that you have lost a good and vertuous wife
and my sealf an honorable frinde and kinswoman. Butt ther was a tyme
when shee was unknowne to you, for whom you then lamented not. Shee
is now no more your’s, nor of your acquayntance, butt immortall, and
not needinge nor knowynge your love or sorrow. Therfor you shall but
greve for that which now is as it was, when not your’s; only bettered
by the differance in this, that shee hath past the weresome jurney of
this darke worlde, and hath possession of her inheritance. Shee hath
left behind her the frute of her love, for whos sakes you ought to take
care for your sealf, that you leve them not without a gwyde, and not
by grevinge to repine att His will that gave them yow, or by sorrowing
to dry upp your own tymes that ought to establish them.” This lady was
sister to two of the unhappy conspirators of 1603 and kinswoman to the
third, as well as being wife of the chief officer of state by whom
these conspiracies had to be brought to light. Well therefore was it,
for her, that her pure spirit had taken its flight before the time of
attainder of her brothers, Henry, Lord Cobham, and George Broke, and
their baseness by falsity and otherwise in leading the much-injured
Raleigh to the scaffold. “Whatever mysteries,” says Mr. Edwards, “may
yet hang over the plots and counterplots of 1603, it is certain that
George Broke proved in the issue to have been the _instrument_ of the
ruin alike of his brother Cobham and of Raleigh. It is also certain
that mere ‘credulity of the practices of malice and envy’ could never
have ripened, save in a very congenial soil, into the consummate
baseness displayed both in the examinations and in some of the letters
of George Broke after his arrest. In certain particulars his baseness
exceeded his brother Cobham’s, and that is saying not a little as
to its depth.” His estates, at the time of their confiscation, are
estimated to have been worth £7,000 per annum; and he possessed £30,000
in goods and chattels. His nephew was restored in blood; but not to
the title or property. These were transferred—“the manor and seat of
Cobham Hall, and the rest of Lord Cobham’s lands”—by James I. to one
of his kinsmen, Ludovick Stuart, Duke of Lennox, whose male line became
extinct in 1672.
The Lady Katherine, sister of the last Duke of Richmond and Lennox,
married into the princely family of the O’Briens of Thomond; but the
Duke “dying greatly in debt” the estates were sold. Cobham Hall was
purchased by the second husband of the Lady Katherine, Sir Joseph
Williamson, who resided there for some time.[8] In 1701 he died,
bequeathing two-thirds of his property to his widow. This proportion
descended, on her demise, to Edward Lord Clifton and Cornbury,
afterwards Lord Clarendon, who had married the sole child of this Lady
Katherine, by her first husband, Henry Lord O’Brien;[9] and on Lord
Clarendon’s death without issue, in 1713, his sister, Lady Theodosia
Hyde, inherited; she married John Bligh, of the kingdom of Ireland,
Esq.; created, in 1721, an Irish peer by the title of Lord Clifton of
Rathmore, and, in 1725, Earl of Darnley in that kingdom.
For some years the Cobham estate was in Chancery. After a tedious suit
it was purchased by Lord Darnley for the sum of £51,000, to the third
part of which a Mrs. Hornby became entitled, as relict of the gentleman
to whom Sir Joseph Williamson had devised one third part.[10]
The Blighs are an ancient family, connected with Devonshire and other
parts of the West of England as well as with Ireland. One of them,
a merchant of Plymouth, an ancestor of the present peer, married
Catherine Fuller, sister to William Fuller, Bishop of Limerick and
Lincoln (1667-1675). In 1721 John Bligh of Rathmore, in the kingdom of
Ireland, Esquire, who had married the Lady Theodosia Hyde, sister to
Edward, Earl of Clarendon (whose wife Catherine, daughter of Katherine
Lady Thomond, who had successfully claimed the barony of Clifton of
Leighton Bromswold, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, as being
descended from the first Lord Clifton, inherited the said barony from
her mother), from whom he inherited the title and the estates, was
created Baron Clifton of Rathmere, in the kingdom of Ireland, in 1721.
[Illustration: _The Three Sisters._]
In 1723 he was created Viscount Darnley of Athboy, and in 1725 Earl
of Darnley, both in the peerage of Ireland. He also succeeded to the
title of Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, in the peerage of the
United Kingdom, by which title he and his successors sit in the House
of Lords. His lordship was succeeded, as second Earl of Darnley, by
his son, who was again, on his death, succeeded by his son John, as
third earl. This nobleman, who was born in 1719, married in 1766 Mary,
daughter and heiress of John Stoyt, of Street, co. Westmeath, and by
her, who died in 1803, had issue John, afterwards fourth earl; Lady
Mary, married to Sir Lawrence Palk, Bart.; the Hon. Edward Bligh, a
general in the army; Lady Theodosia, married to her cousin, Thomas
Cherbourgh Bligh; Lady Catherine, married to Hon. Charles William
Stewart, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry; and the Hon. William, a
colonel in the army. The Earl died in 1781, and was succeeded by his
son John, as fourth earl. He married, in 1791, Elizabeth, daughter
of the Right Hon. William Brownlow of Lurgan, and by her had issue
Edward, fifth earl; Lady Mary, married to Charles Brownlow, Esq.; Hon.
John Duncan Bligh, Secretary of Legation at St. Petersburgh; and the
Lady Elizabeth, married to the Rev. J. Brownlow. His lordship died
in 1831, and was succeeded by his son Edward, fifth earl, who (born
in 1795), married in 1825 Emma Jane, third daughter of Sir Henry
Brooke Parnell, Bart., M.P.,—who, having held office as Secretary
at War, Paymaster-General of the Forces, and Treasurer of the Navy
and Ordnance, was created Baron Congleton in 1841,—and sister to the
present Lord Congleton. By this lady, who is still living, his lordship
had issue, John Stuart Bligh, sixth and present earl of Darnley; the
Hon. and Rev. Edward Vesey Bligh; the Hon. and Rev. Henry Bligh; the
Lady Elizabeth Caroline, and the Lady Emma Bess, both of whom are
married and bear the name of Cust—the first being the wife of Reginald
Cust, Esq., and the latter the wife of the Rev. Arthur Perceval
Purey-Cust. His lordship died in 1835, and was succeeded by his eldest
son, John Stuart Bligh, as sixth earl.
The present peer, John Stuart Bligh, sixth Earl of Darnley, Viscount
Darnley of Athboy, Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold, and Baron
Clifton of Rathmore, was born in 1827, and was educated at Eton and
Christ Church, Oxford, being B.A. in 1848, and M.A. in 1851. He married
in 1850 the Lady Harriet Mary Pelham, eldest daughter of the third
Earl of Chichester, and has by her issue, living, the Hon. Edward
Henry Stuart Bligh, Lord Clifton, who was born in 1851; the Hon. Ivo
Francis Walter Bligh, born 1859; the Hon. Arthur Frederick Pelham
Bligh, born 1865; the Lady Edith Louisa Mary, born 1853; the Lady
Kathleen Susan Emma, born 1854; the Lady Alice Isabella Harriet, born
1860; the Lady Mary Rose Florence, born 1868; and the Lady Constance
Violet Lucy, born in 1869. His lordship is a Deputy Lieutenant of the
county of Kent; Hereditary High Steward of Gravesend with Milton; and
Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry. He is
patron of the living of Cobham. He has, besides Cobham Hall, a seat in
Ireland, Clifton Lodge, Athboy, co. Meath, and a town residence.
The arms of the Earl of Darnley are:—_Azure_, a griffin segreant,
_or_, between three crescents, _argent_. Crest:—A griffin’s head,
erased, _or_, Supporters:—Two griffins, wings elevated, _or_, ducally
collared and chained, _azure_. Motto:—“_Finem Respice_.”
Such is a brief history of the several noble families through whom the
mansion, demesne, and estates of Cobham have passed.
[Illustration: _The Lodge._]
The Hall is backed by a noble park, amply stocked with deer, and
containing trees of great variety and immense size, some of them
measuring above thirty feet in circumference. It comprises 1,800
acres, and encloses an area of about seven miles. The old approach,
long disused, was through an avenue of lime trees, consisting of four
rows, and extending more than half a mile in length from the dependent
village. The present entrance is through a red-brick, turreted
gateway, adjacent to which is the “LODGE.” On nearing the house, the
eye encounters a cedar of magnificent growth, and to the left are the
gardens, into which there are two terrace-walks—one from the great
gate, and another, at a considerable elevation, from the suite of
apartments which constitute the first floor. The view we have given
is the more ancient portion of the venerable edifice—the north wing,
with which the south wing mainly corresponds. They are, however,
connected by a centre, built by Inigo Jones; and this centre, which
consists of a façade with Corinthian pilasters, is out of keeping with
the quaint gables, octagonal turrets, ornamental doorways, carved
cornices, projecting mullioned windows, and elaborated chimneys,
which distinguish the earlier dwelling of the Cobhams. The structure
thus assumes the form of a half H, the wings being terminated by
octagonal towers; a sunken wall in front encloses a quadrangular
lawn, ornamented with vases and statues. The wings exhibit the dates
1582 and 1594, and retain all the characteristics of the later
Tudor style; although, as we have intimated, it has been materially
corrupted by the several alterations to which, from time to time,
the mansion has been subjected. The ordinary entrance is through a
vaulted passage, “built in the form of a Gothic cloister by James
Wyatt,” which contains the arms of the Cobhams, with the date 1587.
This passage leads to the grand staircase, and the several apartments
on the ground-floor. The first to which strangers are conducted is
the dining-hall, which contains an elaborately carved black-and-white
marble chimney-piece, having quaint and curious figures and buildings,
and a series of portraits of rare excellence. The Music-room, one of
the suite added to the ancient building, affords a brilliant contrast
to the sombre and solid character of the dining-room. It contains
but one picture—full-length portraits of the Lords John and Bernard
Stuart, sons of the Duke of Lennox—a _chef-d’œvre_ of Vandyke. The
chimney-piece is formed of the purest white marble, sculptured in
bas-relief after Guido’s “Aurora,” by the elder Westmacott, with fauns
life-size, as supporters. The ceiling was designed by Inigo Jones;
it is divided into several square and circular compartments, with a
deep oval in the centre, “superbly gilt and enriched by appropriate
ornaments, among which are twelve pendant coronets.” The apartment is
in length 50 feet, in breadth 36 feet, and height 32 feet! and although
superbly ornamented and richly gilt—the pillars of the Composite
order, being of white marble, and the lining of scagliola—the whole is
in fine harmony with the grace and chasteness of the design. There are
two galleries, one of which contains an organ. The vestibule is a small
chamber, decorated with valuable vases of verd-antique. The Library
contains a series of portraits of eminent literary men—Bolingbroke,
Sidney, Shakespere, Swift, and others; none of them, however, advance
strong claims to originality. On the walls of the Great Staircase are
hung several large pictures, which may bear examination before the
gallery is entered.