the upper story in such a manner that a person ascending the whole
height goes two and a half times round the well which it includes. This
well, a narrow oblong, is a frame-work of upright posts extending from
top to bottom; and these posts, being divided into shorter lengths by
the various traverse of the stairs and landing-places, are ornamented in
a sort of pilaster fashion, and connected by arches at the top of each
opening: the balustrade of the stairs being formed by a repetition of
such an arcade on a smaller scale. A similar staircase of oak, of a
plainer character, is in the opposite wing.
The chapel is in “Strawberry-Hill Gothic.” The library contains about
seven thousand books of varied standard literature. The pictures
throughout the house are not very remarkable. The park is extensive and
contains some magnificent old trees, the views being relieved by sloping
elevations.
Nearly opposite the dated gateway to the mansion, already engraved and
described, is the entrance to the village of Audley End, which is
approached through an avenue of trees,
[Illustration]
which hide it from the road. The first view of its humble habitations,
as delineated in our engraving, is very striking, and as simply antique
as need be. Its old gables and deep-bowed windows, over which climb the
honeysuckle and ivy, tell at once the age of their erection, and carry
the spectator back to the days of Elizabeth. It is a compact little
village, of about forty cottages, which form a narrow street of close
tenements, all of which may be detected at a glance. The ground on which
the village is built rises and falls in picturesque undulations; and at
its farthest extremity, the gables seen in our next cut belong to the
ancient brick tenements, picturesque in decay, of which a view is here
given. They are thus described in the volume so
[Illustration]
frequently quoted:--“The buildings surround two courts, one of which is
appropriated to ten old women, permitted to reside there by Lord
Braybrooke, to whom the premises belong. The other court is occupied as
a farm-house, together with the old chapel, long since converted into a
barn; but there are no traces of its former destination, excepting an
iron cross on the eastern gable, and the lofty ceiling, supported by oak
beams; and this part of the building is in a very ruinous state.”[21]
These premises were, doubtless, originally erected for purposes of
charity, and perhaps placed under the control of the monastery, having
no especial endowment. At a later period, Thomas first Earl of Suffolk
made some allowance to the inmates, and the building is described in the
parish register as “my lord’s almshouse;” but his widow discontinued the
payments, nor is there any tradition of their having been since claimed
as matter of right.
“It is recorded in one of the chronicles of Walden Abbey, that on the
festival of St. Mark 1258, when Fulco Bishop of London, and Hugo de
Balsham Bishop of Norwich, consecrated the church of Walden, Bishop Hugo
performed the same ceremony for the chapel of the _Infirmaria_, and
granted an indulgence to those who visited it on the feast of its
dedication. It also appears from an inquisition, dated the forty-sixth
of Edward III., that Humphrey Earl of Essex, Hereford, and Northampton,
was seised, _inter alia_, of the advowson of the hospital of the Abbey
of Walden; we may therefore suppose the almshouses, or the site which
they occupy, to have been the place alluded to, and this conjecture is
confirmed by the premises having been described in some old leases as
the Hospital Farm.”[22]
[Illustration:
F. W. Fairholt, Delᵗ. on Stone by W. Walton. M & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
FEERING HOUSE, ESSEX.]
FEERING HOUSE,
ESSEX.
[Illustration: F]EERING is situated on the highroad between London and
Colchester, and is a picturesque and secluded village, full of antique
houses and quiet tenantry, through which runs the Eastern Counties
Railway,--the modern “improvement” that looks strangely out of place in
connexion with the associations engendered by so retired a spot. It is a
place whose history is almost unrecorded. Morant, in his “History of
Essex,” says:--“This parish is of pretty great extent, and lies partly
on the London road, being divided from Kelvedon by the river Pant. The
name is formed from two Saxon words, signifying Bull’s meadow or
pasture. In records, it is called Feering, Feringes, Frearing; and in
Domesday Book, Pheringas and Ferlingas. In Edward the Confessor’s reign,
Harold, afterwards King of England, and Brictmar, had the chief part, if
not the whole, of this parish. At the time of the general survey it was
holden by the Abbot of Westminster and Ralph Peverell; and from thence
were derived the two capital manors here, Feringbury and Prested Hall.
The former is a considerable estate, for many years part of the revenues
of Westminster Abbey, by whom given I cannot find; however, they were
possessed of it in 1343, and continued so till their dissolution, when
it came to the crown. Henry VIII., upon his erecting Westminster Abbey
into a bishoprick, endowed it, among other things, with the manor and
rectory of Fering, and the advowson of the vicarage, January 20, 1540.
But Edward VI. suppressed that bishopric, and gave the premises, April
12, 1550, to Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London, and his successors.
Queen Mary I. confirmed the same, March 3, 1553, to Edmund Bonner,
bishop of London, and his successors for ever; and they have remained
possessed of them ever since. Prested Hall, sometime written Persted and
Porsted, and in Domesday Book, Peresteda, was holden by Ralph Peverell
at the general survey; but it had belonged before to one Brictmar. The
mansion-house stands about half a mile from the church, a little way
south from the London road. In the reign of King Henry II. Brien, son
of Ralph, held this lordship of the honor of Peverell of London.” There
are two lesser manors in the parish called Chambers and Howchins, alias
Fowchins; the latter “standing a little way from the road leading from
Marks Tay to Coggershall. The lands lie partly in the adjoining parishes
of Little Tay and Great Tay. It appears to have been what anciently
belonged to Hugh de Feringe, who took his surname from this parish. In
the year 1332 he and Alianore, his wife, gave it to St. John’s Abbey in
Colchester;” and at the dissolution it reverted to the Crown.
The most interesting old house in the parish or neighbourhood is the one
which forms the subject of our plate, and which stands close to the edge
of the river Pant, or Blackwater, a small stream, seen in the back-view
of the ancient mansion given in our initial letter; the triple gable
here peeps above a rich group of old trees, and the carved barge-boards
and richly clustered chimneys invite the traveller’s nearer view.
Crossing the small bridge, he will find his expectations in no degree
disappointed; the mansion exists in pristine purity, with all its richly
carved decorations untouched by modern hands. From this point our view
of the exterior is taken. The elegant pendants to each gable, the
involuted foliage running along the beams and barge-board, the decorated
spandrils, the antique bow-windows, and the beautiful porch, elaborately
carved and covered with ivy, at once meet the view, and greatly excite
curiosity as to whether the interior in any degree corresponds with so
perfect a piece of antiquity. An entrance is no way difficult of
[Illustration]
accomplishment. Alas, for worldly grandeur! this mansion, upon which the
art and expenditure of the sixteenth century was lavished, is now an
ale-house; and not even one of a first-rate class--being only “licensed
to sell beer.” Few but the poorest class of labourers sit in the
parlour, which forms the subject of our plate, and its beauties are
unappreciated. To which of the families of note in the olden time (and
many resided here) this mansion belonged, cannot now be ascertained with
any certainty; whether Ridley or Bonner (names which give rise to so
many and such varied associations) once sat in these rooms is
unrecorded, but the taste and expenditure here exhibited denote the
superiority of the original occupant. It is seldom we see a more perfect
and remarkable specimen of the in-door aspect of a gentleman’s house in
the early part of the sixteenth century; all here is original, and all
perfect; no plaster-work is any where visible, but walls, ceilings, and
floor, are of oak; the massive beams of the roof boldly cut in a pattern
of running leaves, the angles of the smaller ones tastefully chiselled
and sculptured; figures of angels playing on the lute are upon the beams
in the bay-windows, in which is preserved some of the original painted
glass, “richly dight,” and exhibiting the crowned monogram of the
Virgin, an eagle bearing a scroll, and the royal arms of England, with
the initials E. R. on each side of them. The walls of the room are
entirely covered with carving in a series of patterns, the lower ranges
of which are of that species termed “the napkin pattern,” most
delicately and beautifully chiselled, and untouched by the painter, as
well as uninjured by time. The uppermost range of panels are cut in oval
frames, from the centres of which peep forth, in high relief, a series
of male and female heads, cut with a vigour and truth at once bold and
effective; the head-dresses of all are remarkable, and present a
singular variety of fashions. Mr. Fairholt, in his “Costume in England,”
has noticed that the principal attention of the ladies was given to this
portion of dress, and that they sometimes consisted of a mere “heap of
finery, combining cap, coverchief, and hood, which was at that time the
extreme of fashion.” This remark is fully carried out in the series we
now describe, no two of which are precisely alike, yet all are elaborate
in design and elegant in ornamental detail. Beneath them run a series of
elongated panels, containing smaller heads in the centre of arabesque
ornaments, which are thrown up in strong relief, as the ground of the
panel is painted blue; the projecting pillars which support the main
beams are similarly decorated; and the door is also carved all over with
the napkin pattern, and has the original ring-handle upon it, as well as
the chased steel lock. A more perfect interior of this peculiar period,
or a more elegant one, could not be found. Our view comprehends one half
of the room, reaching to the central beam, the other half of the room is
dark and dingy, and has been separated in a more modern style from the
older and larger room. A fire-place and a carved locker are preserved;
and the pattern of the pomegranate and its leaves, rather lavishly
introduced here, would seem to point out the period when the house was
erected--as the pomegranate was the badge of Catherine of Arragon, the
first wife of Henry VIII.
This fine old mansion stands on the boundary of the parish of Feering,
the village and church being about half-a-mile, or more, distant, and a
little out of the main road. It is, as we have observed, quiet and
secluded, in a fertile county, embracing the ordinary flat, fertile, and
extensive views for which Essex is remarkable; but little of
modernisation appears there, and the visitors would seem to be “few and
far between.” From the churchyard the view is very extensive. Morant
says:--
“The church, dedicated to All Saints, stands high and pleasant. The body
of the church and the chancel are tyled, but a north or south aisle
adjoining to the church are leaded. The south wall and the porch are of
brick; and in the windows are pictured a shuttle and three feathers,
with the letters H. P., which gave rise to the vulgar tradition that
they were built by a weaver. At the west end there is a square tower of
stone, containing eight bells.
“This church was given with the manor to Westminster Abbey. It was
originally a rectory and sinecure, but in Henry the Third’s reign a
vicarage was here ordained, and endowed in the patronage of the rector
or possessor of the sinecure: afterwards the rectory or great tithes
were appropriated to the said abbey and convent, and they remained
patrons of
[Illustration]
the vicarage till their suppression; and then they were granted to the
see of London, as hath been mentioned above.”
The most remarkable feature of the interior is the roof of oak, the
beams and king-posts are richly sculptured, and in good preservation; it
contains no old tombs or brasses; the font is simple, and the only
objects worthy of note are some remains of distemper-painting on the
north wall: a figure of St. Christopher bearing the infant Saviour is
still visible, together with the fragments of an elegant diaper-pattern,
which had probably originally covered the entire wall.
The porch, which we engrave, is entirely built of fine red brick, in
which the elegant windows, niches, tracery, battlements, and pinnacles
of the later Gothic architecture, are beautifully formed and finished
with a sharpness and accuracy which may almost be said to be peculiar to
this county, as we seldom meet with brick-work in this style so rich in
design and execution elsewhere.
[Illustration:
Drawn by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. on Stone by W. Walton. M & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
HOREHAM HALL.]
HOREHAM HALL,
ESSEX.
[Illustration: I]n a retired part of the county of Essex, at a short
distance from the road, in a secluded and lonely spot, stands the
picturesque Hall which forms the subject of our plate. The mansion is in
the parish of Thaxted, and is about two miles south-west of the church.
This manor is supposed to be part of the two fees and a half which the
heirs of Walter de Acre held in Thaxted, Chaure, and Brokesheued, under
Richard de Clare, who died in 1262. It was afterwards in the possession
of the important family surnamed _de Wauton_; for William de Wanton or
Wauton, who died in 1347, held the manors of Chaureth and Horam of the
Lady Elizabeth de Burgh and her ancestors, by the service of three fees,
as of the Honour of Clare. The next possessor upon record was Sir John
Cutt or Cutts, who erected the mansion immediately preceding or early in
the reign of Elizabeth; he was a man of great wealth, and built at
Salisbury Park near St. Alban’s, and at Childerley in Cambridgeshire,
according to Leland, who tells us concerning the present building in his
“Itinerary,” (vol. i. p. 30, pt. 1), that “Old Cutte builded Horeham
Hall, a very sumptuous house in Est Sax, by Thoxtede, and there is a
goodly pond, or lake, by it, and faire parkes there about.”
[Illustration]
Thaxted eventually became the property of Sir William Smijth of Hill
Hall, in whose family it has remained to the present time.
Of the learned Sir Thomas Smijth, the secretary to King Edward VI. and
Queen Elizabeth, there is still preserved an ancient portrait on panel,
which is let into a circle over the carved fireplace of one of the
parlours. It is remarkable as being one of the very few portraits
painted by Titian. Another interesting relic preserved in the Great Hall
is the side-saddle of Queen Elizabeth; the pommel is of wrought metal
and has been gilt, the ornament upon it is in the then fashionable
style of the Renaissance; the seat, of velvet, is now in a very ruinous
condition; but it is
[Illustration]
carefully kept beneath a glass case, as a memento of the queen’s visits
to this place. When princess, Elizabeth retired to Horeham as a place of
refuge during the reign of her sister Mary; the loneliness of the
situation, and its distance from the metropolis, rendered it a seclusion
befitting the quietude of one anxious to remain unnoticed in troublous
times. A room on the first floor in the square tower, seen to the right
in our view, is shewn as that in which Elizabeth resided. She found the
retirement of Horeham so agreeable, that often after she had succeeded
to the crown she took a pleasure in revisiting the place.
The exterior features of the building are characteristic of that period
when strength and security began to give way to domestic comfort and
elegance; there is a mixture of the
[Illustration]
castle and the mansion in Horeham that marks a transition period in
architecture. One great feature of an earlier style of defence still
remains in the moat which originally surrounded the building, but which
is now partly filled up: at the back of the mansion, as shewn in our
cut, it seems still to encircle the building. The old walls which form
the boundary of the garden, and are washed by the water, are stone, and
antique. Some fine cedars of ancient growth still flourish by its side,
to add a sombre, dignified beauty to the scene. There is a grandeur
about old trees which cannot be imparted to a mansion by artificial aid,
and which tell forcibly its antiquity. Modern antiques may easily be
called into existence by the builder, but the “ancestral trees” are as
proud a memento of the early date of an ancient mansion as the
coat-armour sculptured on its front.
The Hall is small; it has a minstrel’s gallery, and the dais opposite is
still preserved. It is lighted by a magnificent oriel window, and has a
greater air of comfort than is found in those of grander proportions.
The other rooms have been so much modernised, to suit the habits and
tastes of the present age, that scarcely a relic remains to shew their
original state.
[Illustration:
W. L. Walton, Del et lith. M & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
ST. OSYTH’S PRIORY.]
ST. OSYTH’S PRIORY,
ESSEX.
[Illustration: St.] OSYTH’S PRIORY--an ancient and very venerable
edifice--is situated on an estuary formed by the Rivers Stour and
Blackwater, distant about twelve miles south-east from Colchester. The
village in which it stands was originally named Cice, or Chich; and
although its chroniclers give us no information as to its Saxon
derivation, there is no lack of knowledge concerning its comparatively
modern name--St. Osyth. But it is obtained from tradition and Monkish
legends; from which we learn that the virgin saint was the daughter of
Frithwald, King of East Anglia, betrothed to Sighere, the Christian king
of the East Saxons; by whom, however, she was freed from marriage bonds,
and permitted to found a church and institute a nunnery of Maturines of
the order of the Holy Trinity--which she did at Chich, a village given
to her by her generous lord. Her establishment was subsequently
plundered and destroyed by the Danes, under Inguar and Hubba, and the
royal lady was herself beheaded beside a fountain, at which, with her
hapless maidens, she used to bathe.[23]
The parish of St. Osyth was anciently part of the royal demesnes. Canute
granted it to Godwin, Earl of Kent, who gave it to Christ’s Church,
Canterbury, with permission of Edward the Confessor. Prior to the
Conquest it must have passed into other hands, for we find at the time
of the Survey it belonged to the bishop of London. Richard de Belmeis or
de Beaumes, consecrated Bishop of London in 1108, obtained the manor and
church of Cice, in order to build and endow a monastery there for canons
of the order of St. Augustine, which was done about 1118; and the tithes
being appropriated to the monks, they served the cure by one of their
own canons. At the Dissolution, the amount of all the revenues was found
to be, according to Speed, £758. 5_s._ 8_d._ Dugdale says it was £677.
7_s._ 2_d._ The abbot, prior, and eighteen canons, subscribed to the
King’s supremacy--which shows the number then maintained. Alaric de
Vere, the first Earl of Oxford, had a son a canon here, who wrote the
Life of St. Osyth, about 1160. Soon after the suppression of religious
houses, Henry VIII. granted it to Thomas Lord Cromwell. On his disgrace
and attainder, the property reverted to the Crown.
Edward VI., for the sum of £3974. 9_s._ 4½_d._, disposed of it to
Thomas, Lord Darcy of Chich, Knight of the Garter and Chamberlain of his
household, by whom it was converted into a residence. This nobleman was
son of Roger Darcy, sheriff of Essex and Herts in 1506, and squire of
the body to Henry VII. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John de Vere,
Earl of Oxford. John, second Lord Darcy, was united to Frances, daughter
of Richard, Lord Rich, by whom he had a son, Thomas. He was united to a
daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson, of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk; created in
1621 Viscount Colchester for life, with remainder to his son-in-law, Sir
Thomas Savage; five years afterwards he was advanced to an earldom, by
the title of Earl Rivers, which became extinct in 1728. This Sir T.
Savage, upon whom the titles were entailed, dying before his
predecessor, Elizabeth, the Earl’s eldest daughter, took the title of
Countess Rivers. She it was who suffered the loss of so much property
during the civil wars. In 1694, the Hon. Richard Savage came into
possession of the titles and estates; he was Lieutenant-General of
Horse, Lord-Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of the County; but having no
legitimate male issue surviving, he gave St. Osyth to a natural
daughter, the wife of Frederick de Nassau, Earl of Rochford, a branch of
the regal line of the House of Orange, whose father came over into
England with William III., at the Revolution. The Earl died in 1738,
leaving two sons, the eldest of whom, William Henry, was secretary of
state in the year 1772. The title became extinct in 1830, and the
possessions devolved upon their present owner, Frederick Nassau, Esq., a
collateral branch of the same family, by whom the Mansion is occupied.
Although the ruins of the ancient monastery are scattered in rich
profusion in all directions around the present dwelling-house, it is
somewhat difficult to determine
[Illustration]
its exact site; arches, towers, and picturesque remains, meet the
visitor at every point, but so situated as almost to defy an attempt to
fix the original plan. The entrance to the residence is through a noble
gateway, flanked, by projecting towers of unequal proportions, with
posterns; the whole being divided into numerous apartments, forming a
building of considerable size and extent. The ceiling is beautifully
groined, and in excellent preservation. As the structure occupies rather
high ground, the Towers are distinctly visible to vessels skirting the
eastern coast, from which it is distant about three miles. The gateway
opens upon a spacious quadrangle, in the centre of which stands a
well-executed figure of Time supporting a sun-dial. Our principal
drawing exhibits parts of the northern and eastern sides of the square;
the other sides consist principally of domestic offices, the larger
portions of which are formed from the old buildings. Those in which the
family now reside are of comparatively modern date, and look out upon an
extensive park, finely wooded and well stocked with deer. In the
grounds, and about sixty yards from the house, is a square brick pillar,
surmounted by an urn; on one side of the pillar is a tablet with the
following inscription, to mark the boundary of the old priory: it was
erected at the time of the Commonwealth--“Vetus hæc Quam cernis maceries
conservata est Ad Augustiniani cœnobii limites designandos Tu vero inter
loci huius amœnitates Tuorum temporum felicitati Gratuleris ablegata jam
ista superstitione quæ Domicilium tam superbum segnitiæ consecravit et
socordiæ A.D. CIƆIƆCCLX.”
At right angles, with the gateway extending outwardly, is a long
battlemented wall, with a fine Norman archway; near the farther
extremity, are several mullioned windows, now blocked up, and a doorway
approached by deep steps. It is generally supposed that the court-house
stood here; for on the steps the manorial court is still opened by the
lord of the manor, or his representative. In the grounds, beneath a
tower of considerable elevation, may be seen the ancient chapel of the
monastery, with its adjoining cells; but the place
“Where monks their orisons and vespers sung,”
is now literally “a cage for unclean birds,” and a receptacle for
garden-tools and decayed fruits and vegetables: it is still in good
preservation, though damp and rottenness have discoloured the
well-proportioned pillars and groined arches of the
[Illustration]