richness of its ornaments it is surpassed by no Mansion in the kingdom.”
The accompanying engraving represents the Terrace and south entrance to
the mansion.
The Hall is lofty, and the roof, which is supported by arches somewhat
like Westminster Hall, has a very noble appearance. The screen in the
Hall is supported by pillars of the Doric order: there is a variety of
quaint devices under the beams, in conformity with the taste of the
time; such as heads of satyrs, chimeras, &c. &c. The walls and ceilings
were painted by Laguerre. The rooms in general are on a grand scale,
lofty and spacious. The fabric, taken as one built by a commoner,
exceeds the loftiest ideas of magnificence. It is wholly of stone, and
must have cost an immense sum in its erection. Indeed the learned
Camden, in the first edition of his “Britannia,” pays to the builder a
somewhat equivocal compliment, asserting that by the time it was
finished he had sunk in its erection “three lordships;” “this Sir
Francis,” he adds, “at great expence, in a foolish display of his
wealth, built a magnificent and most elegant house with a fine
prospect.”
[Illustration: BENTHALL HALL, SHROPSHIRE.]
BENTHALL HALL,
SHROPSHIRE.
Benthall Manor,[14] Shropshire, is in that part of Wenlock hundred which
was comprised in the Saxon hundred of Patintune; a division which became
obsolete soon after the compilation of Domesday Book. Though in the
present day Benthall constitutes a parish in itself, it was included in
that of Wenlock till the latter end of the seventeenth century. In the
reign of Edward the Confessor--and, probably, from a much earlier
period--this estate belonged to the priory of Wenlock; and when William,
the successor of that pious king, distributed lands among his Norman
followers, at the expense of the Saxon nobles, he had too much regard
for his reputation to deprive the Church of her possessions.
Reconciling, however, his piety to worldly policy, King William made the
priory of Wenlock subservient to the abbey of Rheims, and thus contrived
to reward the latter establishment for successful prayers made in favour
of his expedition, and at the same time to raise a Norman influence over
possessions of the English Church. The abbots of Rheims, like modern
non-resident landlords, had cause to regret their absence; for we find
that in the reign of Richard I. the Prior of Wenlock dealt with his
lands as if the Norman abbot had no concern with them: and when, at
length, in the reign of Edward III., the Abbot of Rheims obtained the
king’s charter, confirming to him and his successors all the English
lands which belonged to his abbey, the interposition of the sovereign
was ineffectual as far as it related to Benthall, that estate having
been in the meantime irrevocably disposed of.
In a series of charters possessed by the Benthall family, some of which
are written in the Saxon language, though without date, it appears that
the manor was owned many years by a family who took their surname from
this estate, and these are referred to in the hundred-rolls of the reign
of King Henry III., as having been the ancestors of Phillip de
Benethall, then Lord of Benethall, who held certain lands under the
Prior of Wenlock. Early in the following reign, however, on Phillip’s
forfeiting his lands, Benthall was re-granted to Robert Burnell, Bishop
of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor, whose annexation of this and
numerous other estates to his neighbouring castle of Acton Burnell is
not free from suspicion. The chancellor’s object seems, however, to have
been the preferment of his family, and, perhaps, an addition to his
local influence, rather than an increase to his own revenue, for no
sooner had he acquired the manor than he subgranted it to his kinsman,
John Burnell, who describes himself Lord of Benethall, and appears to
have resided here many years; but on his succeeding his son Henry, as
Abbot of Buildwas, his eldest son, Phillip Burnell, received possession
of his father’s lands, and, dropping the patronymic of Burnell, assumed
the surname of De Benethall.[15] Several acts of liberality on the part
of this Phillip towards the fraternity at Buildwas are recorded to his
credit; and his father appears to have been a considerable benefactor of
the abbey. The descendants of this Phillip de Benethall, and his wife
Maude, daughter of Nicholas Forrer, of Lynley, continued to hold the
lordship of Benthall, with other lands, upon conditions of feudal
service to the elder branch of the Burnell family, namely, the
descendants of Sir Hugh, the eldest brother of the chancellor; among
whom are included the Handloes and the Lovells, descended from Maud,
sister and heiress of Edward Lord Burnell, the grandson of Sir Hugh,
until Francis Viscount Lovell, Lord Chamberlain of the Household and
Chief Butler of King Richard III., having fought for his sovereign at
Bosworth Field, his estates were forfeited to the Lancastrian king,
Henry VII.[16]
On the loss of the battle, with which King Richard lost his life as well
as his ill-gotten crown, Lord Lovell escaped to Saint John’s Abbey at
Colchester, and afterwards to Flanders, where Margaret, duchess of
Burgundy, sister to the late King Edward IV., supplied an army of two
thousand men; with which, and associated with John de la Pole, Earl of
Lincoln, he invaded England, and was killed at the battle of
Newark-upon-Trent, in the third year of King Henry VII. Robert Benthall,
the seventh in descent from Phillip Burnell, was owner of the estate at
this time, and continued to enjoy it, notwithstanding Lord Lovell’s
forfeiture.[17] From this circumstance there can be no doubt that Robert
had proved himself of Lancastrian politics; and it is probable that he
was one of the party of eight hundred gentlemen and others of Shropshire
who were collected by his cousin, Sir Richard Corbet, and accompanied
the Earl of Richmond from Shrewsbury to Bosworth.
From this period the family of De Benethall, or Benthall, held the manor
immediately under the crown,[18] till the death of Richard Benthall,
Esq.,[19] in 1720, who, by his will, gave this estate, together with
other lands, to his affianced cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph
Browne, Esq., of Caughley, who was high-sheriff of the county anno 1567,
by Catherine, the daughter and sole heiress of Edward Benthall. By the
will of Ann, widow of Ralph Browne, Esq. (who was a son of the
before-mentioned Ralph), the manor of Benthall was entailed, in the year
1768, on Lucia, the only daughter and heiress of Francis Turner Blythe,
Esq., afterwards the wife of the Rev. Edward Harries, Rector of Hanwood,
and Vicar of Cleobury Mortimer, from whose eldest son, Thomas Harries,
Esq., of Cructon Hall, the estate has been recently purchased by John
George Weld, second Lord Forester.
About twelve miles from Shrewsbury, and three from Wenlock, lies
Benthall Hall, built by William Benthall, Esq.,[20] A.D. 1535, on the
site of a former house, which, as well as the adjacent manor chapel, is
mentioned in the reign of Henry III.,[21] as being then the property of
Phillip de Benethall; the chapel, however, which was of early English
architecture, remained until A.D. 1666, when it was destroyed by fire,
and in its place the modern chapel, now the parish church of Benthall,
was erected.
The situation of Benthall has at all times enabled its proprietor to
exercise considerable influence over elections in the borough of
Wenlock, the franchise of which extends over the whole of this manor;
but few of the preceding residents at the Hall have aspired to the
office of bailiff, the chief magistrate of this borough--an office
which, nevertheless, is of importance, since the liberties of Wenlock
are more extensive, it is said, than those of any other borough in
England. There is, however, in the Bodleian Library, a curious
manuscript account of the honourable reception which Edward Sprott,
deputy to Richard Benthall, of Benthall, the bailiff, and Richard
Lawley, gave, on the 16th July, 1554, to the Lord President of the
Marches of Wales, on his visiting Wenlock with Justice Townsend. Mr.
Sprott was a member of an ancient family, who long held a considerable
property, called “The Marsh,” in the borough of Wenlock. Richard Lawley
was a son of Mr. Thomas Lawley, who had purchased the then lately
dissolved priory of Wenlock, and had converted it to a residence for
himself. He was the ancestor of the present (anno 1847) Lord Wenlock and
Sir Francis Lawley, Bart., to the latter of whom the extensive property
of the Lawley family in this neighbourhood now belongs. Richard Benthall
was eldest son and heir of William, who has been before noticed. He
married Jane, daughter of Lawrence Ludlow, Esq., of the Morehouse in
this county.
The Hall stands on one of a chain of wooded hills called Benthall Edge,
which rises from a sheet of water in front of the house to a point at
some distance in its rear. In this direction the table of the hill is
terminated by a precipitous wood, which skirts the river Severn, and, at
the left, commands a distant view of mountains in Montgomeryshire, while
the Severn is seen winding its course through the vale of Shropshire. In
the foreground the river passes beneath the Wrekin hill, and washes the
ruined walls of Buildwas Abbey. These objects are presented from a
natural terrace raised some hundred feet above the Severn, which here,
pent in by opposing hills, glides rapidly towards Bridgnorth.
The oak carving in the hall, dining-room, and drawing-room of the
manor-house, were executed by order of John Benthall, Esq. (a grandson
of William), about A.D. 1618, and the arms of Cassey were impaled with
those of Benthall in the ornamental panels, as a compliment to that
family, upon the recent marriage of Lawrence, the heir of Benthall, with
the daughter of Thomas Cassey, Esq.,[22] of Whitefield and Cassey
Compton, in Gloucestershire.
During the Parliamentary wars, Lawrence impoverished himself by his zeal
in support of King Charles; he was one of a list of thirty-two principal
gentlemen of Shropshire (headed by the sheriff) who, in November 1642,
entered into a mutual undertaking to raise a troop of dragoons for his
Majesty’s service; a step deemed necessary in consequence of the
additional strength which the Parliamentary party had acquired in the
county, by Colonel Mitton’s capture of Wem, in the preceding month of
August; but the cause of the Royalists sustained a far severer blow
eighteen months afterwards in the loss of Shrewsbury, which borough,
after having voluntarily expended nearly all its resources in aid of the
king, was surprised in the night of 21st February, 1645, through the
treachery of one of its inhabitants. After an ineffectual defence, the
town was carried by the rebels, and among the prisoners whom they took
on that occasion, was Ensign Cassey Benthall, the eldest son of
Lawrence. The young officer was fortunate enough, however, to make his
escape, and, pursuing his loyal course, had attained the rank of
colonel, when he was killed, fighting for Charles I., at
Stow-in-the-Wold, in Gloucestershire. Colonel Benthall had enlisted in
his regiment many of the yeomen in the neighbourhood of his father’s
estate, and among those who were killed at Stow was Thomas Penderel, a
brother of the famous Richard Penderel, who was the attendant and guide
of Charles II. in his wanderings after the battle of Worcester. The
loyalty of Lawrence Benthall was well known to Richard Penderel, and
nearly procured for the former the honour of aiding the king to escape;
for the royal fugitive, having been conducted by Richard to the town of
Madeley, would have crossed the Severn by the Benthall ferry, but his
intention had been anticipated by the Parliamentary soldiers, who had
taken possession of the boat. Charles, therefore, remained concealed at
Madeley, in a barn of Mr. Woolf, a worthy loyalist, who entertained him
there a night and a day; and from thence the unfortunate king retreated
to Boscobel wood, where he had the well-known adventure which has made
the oak-leaf sacred to his memory.
Many were the damages sustained by the houses of the gentlemen of
Shropshire at this troublesome period, through wanton acts of violence;
but Benthall Hall remained in tolerably perfect preservation till A.D.
1818, when it was partly destroyed by fire, from which, however, the
principal rooms escaped without injury.
[Illustration]
The exterior of the mansion, though it would be commonly denominated
Elizabethan, affords an example of the domestic architecture which was
antecedent to the pure Elizabethan style. The landscape view of the
front presented to the reader is taken from the avenue, which has been
unfortunately deprived of its most stately trees by its present noble
proprietor. The building is of stone; the extent of frontage being
relieved by a slight projection on the left, and by two tiers of
bay-windows, which are placed at equal distances on either side of a
porch. All the windows have stone compartments and lozenge-panes. The
roof is gabled without finials, and the chimneys, which are tastefully
placed, are lofty, with ornamented shafts and mouldings. The porch
stands somewhat out of the centre of the frontage, so as agreeably to
subdue the regularity of the building, and surmounted by a windowed
room, harmonises with the other projections. The front entrance is a
round arched door, on the left of the porch.
The rooms in the interior are lofty. The entrance-hall has unfortunately
lost all its wainscoting, except some carved oak over the chimneypiece,
which represents the Benthall
[Illustration]
coat of arms with that of Cassey impaled. On the right is the ancient
with-drawing-room, completely wainscoted, and containing an oak
chimneypiece, which is executed in the diminutive Grecian style
essential to Elizabethan architecture. The uppermost tier of columns,
which have Ionic capitals, enclose the Benthall coat of arms with that
of Cassey impaled, and immediately beneath it is the coat of Harries,
enclosed by a tier of Roman Doric columns. This room has an elegant
bay-window, and a decorated ceiling; further on the right is a spacious,
but modern dining-room, built by Francis Blythe Harries, Esq. of
Broseley Hall, who resided here many years. On the left of the
entrance-hall is the principal staircase-lobby, forming a passage to the
ancient dining-room. This room is fully and richly wainscoted, and has a
handsome oak chimneypiece extending to a decorated ceiling, and
exhibiting on its panels the Benthall and Cassey coats of arms. The
staircase is also of oak, and elaborately worked, in the angle of which
a panel tastefully, though somewhat fantastically carved, represents a
leopard, the crest of Benthall.
[Illustration:
From a drawing by F W Hulme. Day & Son. Lithʳˢ to The Queen
PITCHFORD HALL, SHROPSHIRE]
PITCHFORD HALL,
SHROPSHIRE.
Pitchford Hall. This very curious and interesting example of the
half-timbered houses of the time of Henry VIII. is situate in the
hundred of Condover, and about six miles south of Shrewsbury. Its
position is singularly felicitous, being placed in one of the
pleasantest and most fertile parts of that most beautiful county,
Shropshire. From Shrewsbury it is approached by a sort of
“cross-country” road, passing through rich tracts of corn-growing land,
up and down, in and out; and the first view of its chequered walls and
clustered chimneys is gained from a distance of about half a mile,
looking up the well-wooded slopes of a rich valley of pasture land. The
road traverses one side of the vale; the Hall occupies a commanding
position on the other, presenting to the tourist new combinations of
beautiful scenery at almost every step he advances, all marked by a
happy unity of impression. No railway comes near it, to break its quiet
with the din and clatter of the too-busy world.
The best general view of the house is from the public road, seen from a
point nearly opposite the principal front: at a distance, the somewhat
harsh contrast of the vivid interlacings of black and white is toned
down into harmony with the general effect, still leaving point enough to
give value to the full, rich masses of wood, by which three of its sides
are encompassed. The house is highly picturesque; the walls seem to be
composed, for the most part, of strongly framed timber, raised on a
substructure of stone and brick. The whole is in a surprising state of
preservation for its age, and seems to have suffered but little from the
progress of time, or the assaults of “improvers.” In front of the Hall a
small stream of water flows, passing under a bridge, on one side of
which it has been raised by means of a weir. This serves a double
purpose--it gives the upper part of the stream a broad river-like
appearance, and at the same time is an admirable defence to the
extensive gardens, which skirt its banks for a considerable distance.
The interior contains nothing peculiarly remarkable; it has some good
rooms, wanting in height, however, as is almost invariably the case in
houses of this description.
Pitchford is said to have derived its name from “a bituminous well, one
of the greatest natural curiosities of the county, on the surface of
which constantly floats a sort of liquid bitumen, in nature resembling
that which floats on the Lake Asphaltites in Palestine.”[23]
The earliest possessors of Pitchford of whom we find mention, were a
family who derived their name from the place; of whom one Ralph de
Pitchford, says Camden, “behaved himself so valiantly at the siege of
Bridgnorth, that King Henry I. gave him Little Brug near it, to hold by
the service of finding dry wood for the Great Chamber of the castle of
Brug, or Bruggnorth, against the coming of his sovereign lord the king.”
The Hall is now the property and residence of the Earl of Liverpool, to
whom it was devised in 1806 by Mr. Oteley, in whose family the estate
had been for nearly four centuries. William Ottley Esq., as the name was
then spelt, was high-sheriff for the county of Salop in the 15th of
Henry VII., and again in the 5th of Henry VIII., in whose reign the
present Hall is supposed to have been built. Robert Ottley is mentioned
as the lord of the manor in the time of Queen Elizabeth. During the
Civil War, members of this family gained much distinction as active and
zealous, but not always successful, adherents of the royal party. “Sir
Francis Ottley was successively governor of the towns of Shrewsbury and
Bridgnorth; the latter he surrendered, after a siege in 1646, to the
Parliamentary forces.” In the articles of capitulation, still existing
at Pitchford, it is stipulated, that “Sir Francis Ottley be permitted to
retire with his family and baggage to his home at Pitchford, or at the
Hay,” another possession of the family.
Close to the Hall, screened on all sides by thick plantations, is the
church, a plain, neat, “respectable” structure, of great age. It
contains some interesting monuments of various members of the Ottley
family, and also “a fine and curious oaken figure of a Knight Templar, a
Baron de Pitchford, a crusader, who was buried here.”
In October, 1832, Pitchford Hall was visited by her Majesty the Queen
(then Princess Victoria) and her august mother, the Duchess of Kent; “on
which occasion,” says the loyal and zealous county historian, “it was
the scene of genuine Shropshire hospitality and festivity.”
[Illustration:
From a sketch by C J Richardson Day & Son, Lithʳˢ to The Queen
THE GREAT CHAMBER MONTACUTE]
MONTACUTE,
SOMERSETSHIRE.
Montacute. The village of Montacute is one of the most primitive and
picturesque of the villages of England. It consists of a large Square, a
Market-place, with its simple and beautiful School-house, an erection
which dates so far back as the time of Henry the Seventh,--a very rare
and fine example in a remarkably good state of preservation, which
formerly stood against a quaint old Market-house, now destroyed. The
principal street consists of stone hovels, built in a rude style, but
still retaining proofs that the comforts of the inmates were duly
weighed and considered. The village and its vicinity are flourishing, in
consequence of the ample employment which the women obtain at
glove-making, at which they are nearly all occupied in their own
cottages. It is situated within four miles west of the town of Yeovil,
and about the same distance south of Ilchester.
Montacute derives its name from a conical hill (_mons acutus_) which
overlooks the
[Illustration]
village, and on which is a round tower, commanding an extensive view of
the Vale of Somerset, and the British Channel.[24] The prospect thence
is, indeed, not only extensive but exceedingly magnificent; including
“the hills below Minehead and Blackdown, Taunton, Quantock Hills,
Bridgewater Bay, and the coast of Wales; Brent Knoll, the whole range of
Mendip, with the city of Wells and Glastonbury Torr; Cheech and Knowl
Hills, Alfred’s Tower, and the high lands about Shaftesbury; also the
Dorsetshire Hills, and Lambert’s Castle near Lyme.” At the foot, is the
site of a Priory of black Cluniac monks, suppressed in the time of Henry
the Eighth, of which only the Gatehouse endures; it is here pictured
from a drawing by Mr. Richardson. It is somewhat extensive, and
contains one room, little injured by time, with a good oak ceiling of
peculiarly bold character.
Montacute House, and the estates adjoining, have been for several
centuries the property of the family of Phelips; who originally “came
over” with the Conqueror, and in consideration of military services were
requited with large grants of lands in Wales, where they were long
settled. In the fourteenth century they “migrated” into Somersetshire,
residing for many years at Barrington, not far from the present seat.
The “spacious and noble building” was commenced in 1550, and finished in
1601, for Sir Edward Phelips, Knight, Queen’s Serjeant, the third son of
Sir Thomas Phelips. Its cost is said to have exceeded the sum of
£19,500. It has since continued in the family of the founder, in the
following line of succession. Sir Edward Phelips, Master of the Rolls,
Chancellor to Henry Prince of Wales, and Speaker of the House of
Commons, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First; Sir Robert
Phelips, his son, in the reigns of James the First and Charles the
First; Colonel Edward Phelips, during the Commonwealth, and in the reign
of Charles the Second;[25] Sir Edward Phelips, Knight, in the reigns of
James the Second and William the Third; his nephew, Edward Phelips,
Esq., in the reigns of Anne and George the First; Edward Phelips, Esq.,
in that of George the Second; William Phelips, Esq., in that of George
the Third; and John Phelips, Esq., in that of George the Fourth; the
present possessor is a minor. But, unhappily, the Mansion, so long the
scene of comparatively uninterrupted hospitality, has been, of late
years, deserted; stripped in a great degree of its internal decorations;
and left to the mercy of time. It presents, however, one of the finest
and most interesting examples of the architecture of the period, yet
existing in the kingdom; “combining simplicity of design with richness
of ornament,”--“a magnificent specimen of the style of Elizabeth’s
reign.”