granted by King Henry VIII. in 1539, to Charles Brandon, duke of
Suffolk. It afterwards came into the possession of the Levesons, a
Staffordshire family of great antiquity, seated at Willenhall. Nicholas
Leveson, lord-mayor of London, died in the year that Trentham was
granted to the Duke of Suffolk. His great-grandson, Sir John Leveson,
left two daughters only, co-heiresses; one of whom, Frances, by marrying
Sir Thomas Gower of Sittenham, carried Trentham and other extensive
possessions into this ancient Yorkshire family, which dates from the
Conquest. Sir John Leveson-Gower was elevated to the peerage in 1702-3,
as Baron Gower of Sittenham. His son John, the second Baron, was
constituted Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, and was repeatedly one of the
Lords of the Regency during the absences of George II. on the Continent.
In 1746 he was created Viscount Trentham of Trentham, and Earl Gower. He
died in 1755, and was buried at Trentham. He was succeeded by his eldest
son, Granville, the second Earl, who was Member of Parliament for the
city of Westminster. On the occasion of his appointment as one of the
Lords of the Admiralty, his re-election was strongly opposed by Sir
George Vanderput, who was defeated by a small majority. In consequence,
a scrutiny ensued; and there occurred several riotous proceedings
recorded in the journals of the time. He filled the high offices of Lord
Privy Seal, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord President of the Council. He was
installed Knight of the Garter, and created Marquis of Stafford in 1786.
His eldest son, George Granville, also a Knight of the Garter, married
the late estimable Countess of Sutherland in her own right, and was
created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. This peerage, according to some of
the Scottish writers, is the most ancient of any in North Britain. The
Duke did not long survive to enjoy his new dignity, but died in the same
year, carrying with him the sincere regret of his numerous tenantry. The
latter, to testify their respect for His Grace’s memory, commissioned
Sir Francis Chantrey to execute a colossal statue of their noble
landlord, which occupies a neighbouring height of great elevation,
immediately in front of Trentham Hall across the lake, and forms a very
conspicuous object in the surrounding scenery. Of the present noble
possessor of the title, George-Granville-Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the
second Duke of his family, it will not be necessary to add much. After
sitting in the Commons for Staffordshire, he was summoned to the House
of Peers in the lifetime of his father, as Earl Gower, and is
distinguished for the gracious dignity with which, during the whole of
his career, he has sustained the honours of so many ancient and noble
families, concentrated, as it were, in his own person.
To the Levesons we may be allowed to recur. Sir Richard Leveson was
distinguished as a naval commander. He is considered to be the subject
of that fine old plaintive ballad, “The Spanish Lady’s Love,” which
relates the woes of a captive maid, “by birth and parentage of high
degree,” at being about to be separated for ever from her detainer--
“Full woe is me,
O let me still sustain this kind captivity!
* * * * *
My heart in prison still remains with thee!”
for he accompanied the Earl of Nottingham, in 1596, in his expedition
against Cadiz, when he was twenty-seven years of age. He was married to
the daughter of this famous Earl, who was the Lord High Admiral and
Commander in Chief of the English fleet which defeated the so called
“invincible” Spanish Armada. Sir Richard Leveson, who was in this
engagement as well as many others, in 1601 was made Vice-Admiral, and
died early in life in 1605. In the Collegiate Church at Wolverhampton a
noble bronze statue, richly gilt, supported by a stately monument in
black marble, was erected to his memory; by which were two brass plates,
the one inscribed with the chief events of his life, registered at
length in Latin, terminating in these words--“E vita pie discessit
[Illustration]
sine prole, sed non sine magno multorum luctu, auro dignus, ære
contentus;” and the other in English. He was succeeded by Sir Richard
Leveson of Trentham, Knight of the Bath, who erected this splendid
memorial to the Admiral’s fame. It was executed by Le Sueur for 300_l._,
and the original contract in French is still preserved at Trentham.
During the contest between Royalty and the Parliament, this bronze
effigy was ordered by the Committee of Sequestrations at Stafford to be
taken away and cast into cannon; but by the timely interposition of Lady
Leveson, the Admiral’s widow, it was redeemed for a sum of money, and
deposited in Lilleshall Church till the strife was over. The marble
monument being destroyed, it now occupies a niche in the church at
Wolverhampton. A copy of the effigy is placed in a recess in the
court-yard at Trentham Hall of which we give an illustration.
The above Sir Richard Leveson, Knight of the Bath, was member
of parliament for the county of Salop, and afterwards for
Newcastle-under-Lyme, and was devoted to the cause of Charles I. He made
his residence at Trentham, “being accounted one of the best
house-keepers and landlords in the county.” In consequence of his
adherence to the royal cause, his property was sequestrated, for which
he compounded by the payment of more than 6000_l._, the largest
composition obtained. There remains a letter from him to the Governor of
Shrewsbury, which strikingly indicates the distresses sustained, by
persons of distinction even, during those troubled times:--
“Sʳ,
“Since the unhappy surprise of Stafford by the rebelles, the place
where I am is not safe, either for myself or my goodes, and
therefore I have sent 2 wagons loaded with some household stuffe,
which I desire, with your dispensac’on, may bee received into your
towne of Shrewsbury, into a roome which I have longe reserved in
myne owne handes for this purpose against a tyme of neede; and that
to this effecte you will please to give order unto your watch for
free passage to and fro, whereby you will oblige mee more and more
to remayne
“Yoʳ ever affectionate frende,
“R. LEVESON.”
“Lilleshall Lodge, 16 May, 1643.
“_To my muche respected frende, Sʳ Francis Oteley, Kt. Governour of
Shrewsburye. Haste these._”
Sir Richard Leveson built the old hall at Trentham in 1633, two views of
which are given in Dr. Plot’s singular “Natural History of
Staffordshire.” He died in 1661. His widow, Lady Catherine Leveson, was
a great benefactress to the parish, and died at Trentham in 1678.
The present Hall, previous to the recent most happy and successful
“transformation” under the direction of Mr. Barry, was built on the
model of Buckingham House, in St. James’s Park. It has now become, by
the addition of the semicircular colonnade, rich carriage porch
surmounted by the ducal arms, and baronial tower, an imposing and
stately mansion, enriched with much diversity of outline.
A massy structure near the Hall was erected by the late Marquis of
Stafford as a family mausoleum, in the Egyptian style; the grounds
around it being planted with various species of yew and other sombre
plants, of a lofty, pointed, and pyramidal form. The ponderous
architecture, the deeply-tinted foliage and heavenward aspect of the
evergreens, form most appropriate emblems, both of human frailty and of
the brighter hopes of the Christian.
The park is marked by the unrestrained native beauties of the
neighbouring wood of oaks, “wild above rule or art,” and by the river
Trent expanding into a goodly lake:--
“A gentle stream,
Adown the vale its serpent courses winds,
Seen here and there through breaks of trees to gleam,
Gilding their dancing boughs with noon’s reflected beam.”
[Illustration:
From a drawing by J. D. Harding. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.
HELMINGHAM HALL, SUFFOLK.]
HELMINGHAM HALL,
SUFFOLK.
Helmingham Hall may be classed among the most remarkable and interesting
edifices in the Kingdom; for, although it has undergone many changes,
and been subjected to a variety of “improvements,” the leading
characteristics of the ancient structure are retained; it still exhibits
a connecting link between the strong castles of the old Barons, and the
embattled mansions which succeeded them. The Hall is distant about eight
miles from the venerable town of Ipswich. The Park contains about
five hundred acres, and is largely stocked with deer. The
Entrance-gate--which forms the initial letter to this Chapter--is placed
between two Lodges--modern, but in admirable keeping with the old House.
An Avenue, arched by magnificently grown trees, conducts to the South
[Illustration]
Front of the Mansion; in which is the principal Entrance, approached by
a Bridge thrown across the Moat. The Moat encompasses the building;
which is surrounded also by a Terrace. Both are kept in excellent
repair; and the former is well supplied with fish. The Drawbridges are
maintained in all their primitive formality, and are, we understand,
even to this day, raised every night. The appended print exhibits the
picturesque interior of one of the two “Gate-houses,” in which these
ancient appendages still remain,--showing also the rude machinery by
which it was elevated or depressed. It is an object now very rarely
encountered: one of the most impressive records of “the state” (using
the term in its double sense) in which our ancestors lived--keeping
perpetual watch and ward. All praise be to the existing Lord of this
Mansion, who has taken especial care to prevent Time from destroying so
peculiar a relic of a remote age. The present representative of the
Tollemaches--John Tollemache, Esq.--has indeed manifested continual zeal
to protect from injury the seat of his ancestors--restoring with
judgment, skill, and taste, where injuries have resulted from years, but
so as in no
[Illustration]
degree to impair its original character; neither adding to, nor taking
from, its early and “fair” proportions.
Notwithstanding these solemn tokens of gone-by days, so intimately
associated with times of peril, the external appearance of the building
is peculiarly light and graceful--a character which it derives, chiefly,
from four large Bay Windows, with projecting cornices and embattled
parapets; Gables profusely ornamented with richly wrought finials; and a
multiplicity of Chimneys similarly enriched, with reticulated and
indented mouldings. The structure is quadrangular. The Courtyard, with
its several dependent buildings, has been restored with remarkably good
taste and imposing effect. The Eastern Entrance to these buildings is
here pictured. Crossing this Court, the Hall is reached[34]; the State
Apartments are limited to the Western Front. They have been arranged
with greater care to comfort than to Baronial grandeur; due attention
has been paid, however, to the “furnishing,” and the taste of the Tudor
age harmoniously prevails throughout the Mansion. Until very lately, the
Hall had been completely deserted by the family, and was rapidly falling
to decay. When it became the residence of the present proprietor, it was
completely renovated; the Garden or West Front, which had become
dilapidated, having been entirely rebuilt. The Hall and several of the
Apartments are adorned with Portraits of the ancient and noble Family;
among them are some fine paintings by Lely, Kneller, and Reynolds.
A relic of exceeding interest is contained in one of the rooms. It is
the Lute which Queen Elizabeth presented to an infant scion
[Illustration]
of the House, to whom her Majesty stood Godmother. It has the
date,--1580,--and the inscription, “Cymbalum Deca chordon.” It is
preserved in a glass-case, which also encloses a variety of rare and
curious coins; and in the same chamber is a spinette--believed to have
been once the property of the Virgin Queen.
The very ancient Family of Tollemache resided for many generations at
Bentley in Suffolk. In their old Manor House there was “to be seen until
lately,” (within the present century, perhaps), the following
inscription:--
When William the Conqueror reigned with great fame,
Bently was my seat, and Tollemache was my name.
They boast their descent from Tollemache, a Saxon Lord of Bentley and
Stoke Tollemache in Oxfordshire, in the sixth century. In the Domesday
Book, the name is written Toolmag, and subsequently Thalemache,
Tolemache, Talmage, Tallmash, and Tollemache. For nearly thirteen
hundred years, the Family has dwelt in Suffolk county, flourishing in
uninterrupted male succession, until so recently as 1821, when, by the
death of the late Earl of Dysart, the title became extinct, and with it
the direct male line of the long famous race. They acquired the rich
estate at Helmingham by the marriage of Lionel Tollemache, of Bentley,
Esquire, with Edith, daughter and sole heiress of William Joyce, of
Crekes Hall, in Helmingham, who in the first year of the eighth Henry
was found, by requisition, to hold the Manor of Bentley by knight’s
service. He served the office of High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in
the fourth year of the same reign. By this Lionel Tollemache, Helmingham
Hall was built. He died in the early part of the reign of Edward the
Sixth, and was succeeded by his son, Lionel Tollemache, Esq., who was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth, who, during her progress through the
counties of Suffolk and Norfolk in 1561, honoured him with her presence
at Helmingham Hall, on August 14th and four following days, “where she
was entertained with great splendour and hospitality.” During the visit,
Her Majesty stood Godmother to her Host’s eldest son, Lionel: to
commemorate this event, she presented to him, as we have stated, a Lute,
still preserved as an heir-loom in the Family.
His son, the first Baronet, was advanced to the dignity by James the
First, in 1611. He died at Helmingham on the 5th of September, 1612, and
was buried there on the same day (in the Parish Register the interment
is entered, “Et eodem die sepultus fuit).” Helmingham Hall continued in
his male descendants until the death of Wilbraham Tollemache, Earl of
Dysart, in 1821[35], when it devolved upon his sister Louisa, Countess
of Dysart, and upon her death in 1840, to the present proprietor, John
Tollemache, Esq., M.P. for North Cheshire, eldest son of the late
Admiral Tollemache, grandson to Lady Jane Halliday, sister to Lionel,
fifth Earl, and Wilbraham, sixth and last Earl of Dysart.
The Earldom of Dysart came to the family by the marriage of Sir Lionel
Tollemache, Bart., with the Lady Elizabeth Murray, eldest daughter and
heiress of William Murray, first Earl of Dysart; upon the death of her
father she succeeded to the title. Sir Lionel died in 1669, and was
buried with great pomp at Helmingham on the 25th of March, in the same
year. The Countess married secondly at Petersham, in Surrey, February
17, 1671-2, to John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, and Knight of the
Garter.
The Tollemaches--although classing amongst the most ancient families of
the realm, and for centuries preserving an unbroken link--appear never
to have been very emulous of distinction. The name scarcely appears upon
the Roll of Fame: neither in the Senate nor at the Bar have they
achieved for it high repute; nor does it occupy a conspicuous place in
the annals of war of any period--from the Conquest down to the existing
age[36].
In the immediate vicinity of the Hall, are several primitive and highly
picturesque Cottages, many of which are of a date coeval with that of
the Mansion: and the very ancient and venerable town of Ipswich is
inconceivably rich in architectural antiquities.
HELMINGHAM CHURCH stands by the south side of the Park. The Tower was
built in 1487, as appears by the copy of an agreement now in the Church
chest, between “John Talmage, Esquier, Maistress Elizabeth, his wyff,
Edmund Joyce, Gent., John Wythe, and William Holme on the one part, and
Thomas Aldrych, of North Lopham, Mason, on the other, for thirty
pounds.” It is not known by whom the Church was built; but in 1258, Dame
Margaret Creke, who founded the Nunnery of Flixton, near Bungay,
presented to it; and the Prioress and Nuns of Flixton presented to it
till 1312, when she exchanged the patronage for that of Flixton, with
the Bishop of Norwich; from that time the Bishops presented to it till
the Reformation, when the Crown claimed and has presented to it ever
since. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. About a foot and a half from
the ground, on the south side of the steeple, carved in stone letters of
a foot high, is the following inscription, in old English letters:--
“Scandit ad ethera, Virgo, puerpera virgula Jesse.”
[Illustration]
The Steeple is a square tower of Flints, embattled on the top: on the
south side are the arms of Tollemache--three shields--of the date 1543,
when it was built. It is supported by four buttresses, all standing
diagonally. On the west side, near the ground, was an inscription, now
gone.
The Nave of the Church is of the date of the fourteenth century, and
contains a fine South Door of the then prevalent style of architecture.
The Windows, as well as the Roof, are of a later age--probably about
1540. The Chancel is quite modern, but is now undergoing alterations and
repairs; the result of which will be to assimilate it with other parts
of the venerable building. In reference to this matter, also, high
praise is due to the present proprietor of Helmingham, inasmuch as he is
removing many of the blots left upon the sacred edifice by the bad taste
or heedless indifference of his predecessors.
Both the Chancel and Nave are crowded with monuments commemorating the
heroic deeds of members of the Family of Tollemache. The most remarkable
and interesting fills nearly the whole of the southern side of the nave;
and it is so lofty, that part of the roof has been displaced to make
room for it. It contains, in niches, four figures of men kneeling with
their hands clasped and erect before them, the three first in a row, the
fourth above them; they are bareheaded, with swords by their sides, and
in the dress of the 17th century. We learn from a rhymed inscription
underneath each figure that these are the effigies of the four first of
the Tollemaches who settled at Helmingham--the monument to their honour
being erected by the fifth.[37]
[Illustration:
From a sketch by C. J. Richardson. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen.
HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK.]
HENGRAVE HALL,
SUFFOLK.
Hengrave Hall, “an embattled Manor-house, with Turrets of singular
design and a Gate-House of acknowledged beauty”--is situate about two
miles from the ancient and venerable town of Bury St. Edmunds.[38] The
founder of the building was Sir Thomas Kytson, a wealthy cloth-merchant
of London, by whom it was erected, between the years 1525 and 1538,
probably upon the site of a mansion still older,--the ancient hall of
the De Hemegraves. A brief history of the several families through whose
hands the Manor has passed into those of its present possessor, Sir
Thomas Gage, Bart., may interest the reader.[39]
In the reign of Edward the Confessor, it formed part of the territory of
St. Edmund, by whose monks it was held at the Conquest. About the middle
of the twelfth century it was granted by Anselm, the seventh Abbot, to
“Leo and his heirs;” and by them was assumed the surname of Hemegrave.
The De Hemegraves filled the highest offices in Suffolk for upwards of
two centuries, when the race was extinct, and the estate became, by
purchase, the property of the Hethes. In failure of male issue, it
passed--in the nineteenth of Henry VI.--by purchase, to the Staffords.
In 1522, consequent upon the attainder of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, it
was sold to Sir Thomas Kytson, “citizen and mercer of London, otherwise
called, KYTSON THE MERCHANT;” so he is styled in an Act of Parliament
which confirmed him the purchaser of Hengrave.[40] He was succeeded by a
posthumous son, who left no male issue; he had, however, three
daughters, one of whom married Thomas Lord Darcy, created Viscount
Colchester and Earl Rivers, and who, in right of his wife, became
entitled to, and resided at, Hengrave. From her inherited a daughter,
Penelope, who married Sir John Gage, Bart., of Firle, in Sussex.[41] In
this family Hengrave has since continued; its present proprietor being
Sir Thomas Gage, the eighth Baronet, born on the 20th of March, 1812.
The Mansion, which seems to have undergone very little change since its
erection, and may be classed among the most unimpaired domestic
structures of the kingdom, is of considerable size, “covering 18,500
square feet of ground,” although by the removal, in 1775, of a mass of
building which projected at the east and north sides, together with a
high Tower, it has been reduced one-third at least from its original
extent. Several ancient family documents which still exist, and of which
copies are given by Mr. Gage, inform us that the whole cost of the
structure did not much exceed £3000.[42]
From these interesting documents we learn also that the Mansion at
Hengrave was furnished with all necessaries from sources within its own
boundaries--a mill, a forge, and a farm; a dovecote, a grange, a barn; a
great and little park, a vineyard, an orchard, a hop-ground, and a
hemp-ground. There were butts for the Archers, (“still visible in the
upper part of the Park”); mews for the hawks, and kennels for the
hounds. There was a bowling-green also; and the neighbouring ponds were
well stocked with fish to divert the Angler and supply the “Fast-day
meal.” The Inventory of household goods, taken in 1603, enumerates among
other items, now familiar only to the Antiquary, “the Shovelboard,” a
table for playing a fashionable game; of Armour, the “Almain Rivetts,”
“the Privye Coats” of Mail; the “Jackes of Plate,” the “Mayle Gorgetts,”
the “Spanish Burgenetts,” the “Dagges,” (short Hand-guns);
“Snaphaunces,” (Firelocks,) Pethernells, (a kind of Harquebuss,) and
Ptyzens, (Partizans,) both “ordinary and very fayre.” Of Musical
Instruments, the Recorder, the Cornute, the Bandore, the Cittern, the
Curtall, and the Lysarden--all “in ye chamber where ye Musicyons playe;”
with books, “covered with parchment,” containing pavines, galliards,
measures, levaultoes, corrantoes, and Italian fa-laes.
The beautiful and long-famous Gate-way of Hengrave Hall is pictured in
the accompanying print. It is a splendid example of “Tudor
magnificence;”--“of such singular beauty,” says Mr. Gough, “and in such
high preservation, that, perhaps, a more elegant specimen of the
Architecture of the age in which it was erected cannot now be seen.” We
borrow our description of it from Mr. Gage. The structure has an arch
obtusely pointed; in the spandrels appear the Kytson Crest,--a unicorn’s
head erased. The space above is filled by a triple bay window, the domes
of which are rich in scale work and crockets, and have basements or
brackets elegantly terminated in pendant corbels; each square
compartment in the lower division of the window contains a Shield,
bearing the Arms of some member of the family of the founder. On the
frieze below two of these Shields are these words:--
Opus hoc fieri fecit Tome Kytson.
Ano Dni. MCCCCC. Tricessimo Octavo.
The battlements of the Gate-house, assuming the appearance of small
gables, the points of which, crowned with richly carved hoop garlands
and vanes, correspond with those of the triple dome below, give height
to the whole, and complete the beauty and harmony of the design. The
Inner Court of fine masonry, embattled, appears in its original state;
and is distinguished by the bay window of the Hall on the north side.
The interior of the Mansion has little of its primitive character; but
“the florid style of architecture which prevailed, is still conspicuous
in the fair tracery, pendant, and spandrels of the bay window,” which
retains its early beauty. Of the number and variety of the apartments at
Hengrave, and of the splendid luxury of its domestic arrangements, some
judgment may be formed from the “Inventory,” dated 1603, of which Mr.
Gage prints a copy. Here we read of the Queen’s Chamber, the Chiefe
Chamber, the Great Chamber, the Armoury, the Gallery at the Tower, the
Dyning Chamber, the Chapell Chamber, the Chamber in which the muscycions
playe, and a host of others--all magnificently furnished. The Great
Chamber was hung with eight large pieces of fine arras--“parke worke
with great beasts and fowls, 160 yards;” the cheyres and stooles were
covered with coloured clothe of silver; the carpetts were of Turkeye
worke. The Dyning Chamber had its tapestrye--“of the story of Danea.”
The Wynter Parlor, its “pfuming frame of brasse” and “chesse boorde, wᵗʰ
men to it.” To the furniture of the Armoury and the Musicians’ Chamber
we have adverted. The contents of the “Sadler’s Shopp,” however, denotes
more pointedly the wealth and luxury of the family. The saddles were of
sumptuous character--“layed with gould lace;” “fringed with gould and
silke;” “embroidered with goulde and purle;” and so forth.
Towards the close of the last century, the Mansion was the abode of a
sisterhood of expatriated nuns. They belonged to the English Convent of
Austin Nuns at Bruges, and obtained an asylum here by the generosity of
Sir Thomas Gage, himself a Roman Catholic. They subsequently returned to
France; but the mortal remains of many of the persecuted Sisters lie in
the Churchyard of Hengrave--among others, those of their Abbess, the
venerable Mary More, one of the heirs-general, and the last lineal
descendant, in the paternal line, of the great Chancellor, Sir Thomas
More.
Hengrave Church is very close to the Hall, and would appear, indeed, to
have been originally attached to it. It has
[Illustration]