Part 26

He was in his eightieth year when he succeeded to the family estates, and seems to have concentrated all his care and interest on Doddington, buying up, as far as possible, the reversionary interests of his sisters in it, so as to leave it to his wife and daughter. During the years 1809-12 the whole of the mullioned windows of the Hall were repaired by him, new stonework and glass being inserted where required. The Great Fishpond was laid out and its banks planted in 1811, and all the detached buildings in the Hall yard—laundry and brew-house, stable and coach-house—were rebuilt in 1814 and 1815. An expert was employed by him to survey and restore the woods, which Lord Delaval had so devastated that no timber could be supplied from the estate. Various articles of furniture, pictures, and ornaments were brought here from Seaton-Delaval. A survey and valuation of the estate made in 1812 states that the mansion-house and buildings are in excellent repair.

After six years’ ownership Mr. Delaval died, at the age of eighty-five, the last legitimate male heir of his ancient family. His death took place at his house in Parliament Place, 14th August 1814, and he too was buried in Westminster Abbey, not in the family vault, but in the nave among the philosophers, the place being simply marked by the name E. H. DELAVAL, cut on one of the stones of the pavement. In Doddington Church, which was repaired at his expense in 1810, his hatchment hangs side by side with that of his brother. Many portraits of him remain at the Hall representing him either in the family groups, or as a young man in his gold-tufted college cap, or seated with a greyhound by his side, or in middle age with the artificial jewels of his making, or as a white-haired old man of eighty-five sitting at the window of his house overlooking the Thames.

Seaton-Delaval and his other entailed estates devolved on his nephew, Sir Jacob Astley, Bart., son of his eldest sister Rhoda, by whose descendants they are still possessed. But he had bought up the greater part of the reversionary interests in Doddington, so as to settle them on his wife and daughter. The latter had married in 1805 James Gunman, Esq., who was possessed of considerable property in the neighbourhood of Dover and Coventry, and who was the last of a family singularly devoted to the sea, which had produced a succession of noted naval captains. The fact that he died without issue, leaving all his property to his wife, and the subsequent destruction of his Dover mansion owing to the extension of the town, has added a fresh strain of interest to the Elizabethan Hall, by the removal to it of the journals and other memorials of several of these seamen, including the portrait of Captain Christopher Gunman, the first of the line, who was captain of the yacht of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., as well as pictures of the yacht itself, and of the sea-fights with the Dutch in which he was engaged.

By the wills of Mrs. Gunman, who died in 1825, and of her mother, Mrs. Hussey-Delaval, who survived till 1829, all their property was left to their friend, Lieut.-Colonel George Ralph Payne Jarvis, who had served in the Peninsular War and in the expedition to Walcheren. He came into residence at the Hall in 1829, and bought up the remaining portions of the estate, which is now in the possession of his grandson, George Eden Jarvis, Esq., J.P. and D.L.

Having thus sketched the history of its successive owners, let us enter the house itself. We shall find it still peopled with their memories, their portraits looking down on the rooms in which so much of their lives was passed. Passing through the triple-gabled gate-house which forms the main entrance, we find ourselves in the east garden or fore court, now well-nigh filled with four stately cedars of Lebanon. These might seem coëval with the house itself, but in fact they are coëval only with the latest family of its owners, having been planted here about 1829. Fronting us is the central porch on which more elaboration has been bestowed than on any other part of the building. This admits us directly into the hall, a room 53 feet in length by 22 feet in breadth, filling up the whole width of the body of the house. Originally its floor was plaster, and from this and the general whiteness of its walls and furniture it was known as the White Hall. But in 1861 it was refloored with oak grown on the estate, and furnished with more regard to comfort and suitableness as a general sitting-room for the family. At one end hangs a fine picture by Guido of the Angel appearing to Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness, its purchase and presence here being due to Mr. Edward Hussey-Delaval’s artistic tastes. The marble mantelpiece is one of those bought by Lord Delaval in 1761, and over it are ranged steel caps and helmets; and among these an iron branks or scold’s bridle, with a projecting spike before the mouth, used as a punishment for scolding women. Near it is another grim relic of the past—the headpiece of the irons in which a man, commonly known as Tom Otter, was gibbeted on Saxilby Moor in 1806 for the murder of his wife. Here, too, we may see several of the oak carvings, framed as pictures, and remarkable for their depth of cutting and multiplicity of figures, that were executed by Colonel Jarvis in his later life.

Passing out of the hall into the northern wing, we enter on the left the dining-room, panelled in oak, now freed from the white paint with which it was formerly coated. Over the marble mantelpiece is a portrait of the late owner of the house, G. K. Jarvis, Esq., painted by Lutyens in 1868. Opposite are the portraits of Mr. Edward Hussey-Delaval with the artificial gems of which we have already spoken, and of his daughter Sarah, afterwards Mrs. Gunman, the latter painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Amongst other pictures hanging here are a three-quarter length likeness of James I. in a quaint drab suit; and a small one of Prince Henry, his eldest son. At the end of the room the square mirror with deeply carved gilt frame was brought from the residence of the Gunman family at Dover, and hung formerly in the _Anne_, the royal yacht of the Duke of York, by whom it was presented to Captain Christopher Gunman in 1671. Near it is a portrait on panel of the Infanta Donna Maria, “_ætatis suæ_ 19, 1617,” daughter of Philip III., the Princess on whose account Charles I. made his adventurous expedition to Spain. The massive oak table below was originally a plain table in the servants’ hall, but was fashioned by Colonel Jarvis’s skill in carving into a handsome side-board. It shows the size of the oaks that grew on the estate before Lord Delaval cut them down.

Opposite the dining-room, at the east end of the wing, is the Library, formerly known as the Green Parlour. Here may be seen an oil painting of the Duke of York’s yacht, which Captain Gunman commanded from 1670 to 1675. Here, too, hang the pair of landscapes representing views up and down the Thames, taken from Mr. Delaval’s house in Parliament Place. They were painted by his friend G. Arnold, A.R.A., the figures of Mr. Delaval seated in the one, and of Mrs. Delaval and their daughter in the other, being put in by G. F. Joseph, A.R.A., who painted the full-length picture of Mrs. Delaval in a similar red velvet dress, which is now in the Long Gallery.

Between these two rooms the main staircase is carried in a projection of the house on the north, a broad flight to the first landing, returning in narrower flights on either side to the first floor. Its plain banisters and heavy mahogany rail show that it is of later date than the house, and, in fact, it was put up by Lord Delaval in 1761. On the landing on either side are portraits of Mr. Edward Hussey-Delaval, and of his daughter, Mrs. Gunman. The former, taken in 1813, represents him at the age of eighty-five as a white-haired old man, seated at the window of his house in Parliament Place, looking out on the Thames, with St. Paul’s in the distance, and on the table before him many of his scientific works, including his report on the best means of preserving St. Paul’s from lightning, and its translation into Italian in 1779, which was done by the order and at the expense of the Emperor Joseph II. Following the returns of the staircase, we have on the one side portraits of Rhoda Apreece, the heiress of Doddington, as a girl with a goldfinch, and in later life as Mrs. Rhoda Blake-Delaval. Next beyond is the seated figure of her aunt Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Hussey, and wife of Richard Ellys, Esq. of Nocton (died 1724), painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, probably the picture of her “sister Betty,” bequeathed by Rebecca Hussey to her niece, Rhoda Apreece, in 1714. On the opposite flight of stairs are ranged portraits of Colonel G. R. P. Jarvis, to whom Mrs. Gunman left the Doddington estate in 1825; of George Eden Jarvis, Esq., his grandson, and its present owner; of Martha Lowth (_b._ 1710, _d._ 1796), sister of Bishop Lowth, as a girl, and of her future husband, Dr. Robert Eden (_b._ 1702, _d._ 1759), Archdeacon of Winchester.

On the landing between these flights of stairs is one of the most pleasing pictures in the house, representing a family group of the three youngest sons and three youngest daughters of Francis and Rhoda Blake-Delaval. We may notice that the heads have been painted separately and inserted in the canvas. These were painted by the eldest sister, Rhoda, who married Edward, afterwards Sir Edward Astley, Bart., while the background and figures and draperies were added by Van Hacken, a celebrated painter of the day. The seated figure of the boy with portfolio is George, and the two with musical instruments are Henry and Ralph, who were twins, and so alike as scarcely to be known apart. These three died young, Henry only surviving till 1760, when he was killed in India. Of the daughters, the standing figure is Ann, afterwards the wife of Sir William Stanhope, K.B.; the next Elizabeth, who died young; and the least Sarah, afterwards Countess of Mexborough, who died the last survivor of her generation of the family, at the age of eighty, in 1821.

From this landing we enter the drawing-room, which is on the first floor, above the hall and of the same dimensions with it, with windows opening to the east and west. Here on all sides are portraits of the Delaval family. Over the mantel itself is the portrait of Mrs. Rhoda Blake-Delaval, with a corresponding one of her husband, Captain Francis Blake-Delaval, opposite. Another picture of her at full length, seated, painted by Arthur Pond, occupies the south part of the eastern wall, while the two ends of the room are filled with groups by the same artist, one of four, the other of seven figures of her sons and daughters; the taller lady in the centre is said to have been a cousin. Similar pictures exist also at Seaton-Delaval. On either side of the fireplace are full-length seated figures, also painted by Pond, of the second of these sons, John Hussey-Delaval, Lord Delaval, who inherited Doddington from his mother in 1759, and died in 1808, and of his wife Susannah, Lady Delaval, who died in 1783. The remaining space on the east wall is occupied by the likeness of the eldest son, Sir Francis Blake-Delaval, K.B., by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who has represented him in his red Volunteer uniform, standing musket in hand on the French coast, with villages burning in the background. Similar portraits of him are found at Seaton-Delaval, and Methley Park, Yorkshire, and at Ford Castle, and it has been engraved in a series of portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, published in 1865. Over the doorways are four smaller portraits, one representing Edward Hussey-Delaval, in his tufted college cap; and a second, the eldest sister, Rhoda, Mrs. Astley; whilst a third, if it is rightly said to represent Lady Tyrconnel, is the only one of Lord Delaval’s children now at Doddington.

Beyond the drawing-room on the south is a bedroom which still retains its ancient tapestry. On it are depicted scenes from the Trojan War, but with its former bright colours sadly faded. To the picture of a dog over the door the following story is attached. It belonged to Mr. Henry Stone, of the adjoining parish of Skellingthorpe, and it is said to have pulled his master three times away from a tree under which he had taken shelter from a thunderstorm. At the third time the tree was struck by lightning, and a pheasant pictured on it was killed. Mr. Stone died in 1693, leaving his estate at Skellingthorpe of more than 3000 acres to Christ’s Hospital, London. He was buried just inside the churchyard at Skellingthorpe, and his dog, it is said, close to him, just outside the consecrated ground.

Returning through the drawing-room to the north wing, we find two other bedrooms with their original tapestry hangings. One is known as the Holly Room, from the great holly tree on which its windows open; the other as the Tiger Room, from the wild beasts depicted on its Flemish tapestry, dating from about 1600. This has retained more of its original bright colouring than the other, which is of English manufacture, made probably at Mortlake, _temp._ Charles I., in the costume of whose time the figures on it are represented. In the Holly Room the ancient crewel work of the bed hangings deserves attention; while the lofty four-post bedstead in the Tiger Room, upholstered in crimson damask, is said to have been that occupied by Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, when entertained by Lord Delaval at Seaton-Delaval in 1771. A quaint picture over the mantelpiece represents Nebuchadnezzar in his state of degradation grazing among the beasts.

Mounting thence to the third storey, we find on the uppermost landing another portrait of Mr. Edward Hussey-Delaval, as a young man, seated, with a greyhound by his side—one doubtless of the breed for which Seaton-Delaval was famous in his brother Sir Francis’s time. On either side the bedrooms, above those just described, retain their original plaster floors. In one is the portrait of Admiral Sir Ralph Delaval, “coasting admiral in the time of Charles II.,” painted in armour, with flowing wig, who died in 1691. In the same room a naval picture, brought from the Gunman mansion at Dover, represents the royal yacht, the _Anne_, Captain Christopher Gunman, passing the Castle of Kronenborg at Elsinore, without striking topsails, and receiving the cannon-fire of the castle, as recorded by Captain Gunman’s log-book under 23rd September 1670. Yet another represents the wreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel in his flagship, the _Association_, on the Scilly Isles, on the night of 22nd October 1707. This also was brought from Dover, Captain James Gunman, R.N., having been with the fleet in command of the _Weasel_ sloop, but happily escaping the wreck.

Here we enter the Long Gallery, 96 feet long by 22 feet wide. It has two fireplaces, and windows only on the western side, and fills the whole centre of the house, extending over the drawing-room and two bedrooms beyond. As we enter let us turn, and, beginning at the north-west corner, let us note the more interesting pictures in their order. This white-haired old man, painted on panel, in blue coat and buff sword-belt, is said to represent John, Lord Hussey of Sleaford, beheaded at Lincoln in 1537 for complicity in the Lincolnshire rising. Occupying the centre of this northern end of the gallery is the full-length figure of Captain Christopher Gunman, in a rich costume. In the background is represented the royal yacht, of which he was captain, as well as of several ships of war. We may notice the empty sleeve of his left arm, which he lost in an engagement with the Dutch, while in command of the _Orange_ frigate, 3rd August 1666. A picture of this sea-fight with two Dutch men-of-war is in one of the bedrooms. Higher up on this same wall is the portrait of Thomas Tailor, registrar to the Bishops of Lincoln, who bought Doddington in 1593, and built the hall before his death in 1607. He is characteristically represented as dressed in brown, with wide lawn collar and cuffs, seated at a table with a pen in his hand and an official document before him. On either side, over the doors, are the portraits of Sir Thomas Hussey, the second baronet, who died 1706, and of Sarah (Langham) Lady Hussey, his wife, who died 1697.

Turning now to the long eastern wall, and passing pictures of Lady Frances Howard, by Sir Peter Lely, and of Charles XII. of Sweden, perhaps by David Kraft, we come to the full-length figure of Mrs. Sarah Hussey-Delaval, died 1829, the wife of Edward Hussey-Delaval, Esq. It was painted in 1815 by G. F. Joseph, A.R.A., who has represented her in a crimson velvet dress, with a macaw by her side. Next to her is the likeness of Rebecca Hussey, daughter of Sir Thomas Hussey, Bart., painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. She died unmarried in 1714, but her name is still well known as the foundress of Rebecca Hussey’s Charities. The boy, in a red dress trimmed with silver, is shown by the coat-of-arms to have been a son of Sir John Delaval, of Dissington, who died 1632, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Selby, whom he married in 1612. Passing the central door which opens into the little room in the projection over the entrance porch, we have yet another portrait of Mrs. Rhoda Blake-Delaval, died 1759, a duplicate of which is at Ford Castle. Near her is one of Charles I., and beyond these, as a companion picture to that of Rebecca Hussey, also painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, the full-length likeness of her sister Sarah, daughter of Sir Thomas Hussey, Bart., and wife of Robert Apreece, Esq. She was born at Doddington in 1672, and died 1749, having become the sole heiress of her father’s estates after her sisters’ death. The next picture in all probability represents Mary of Modena, the Queen of James II. Beyond it, the lady in black is Ann Hussey-Delaval, sister of John, Lord Delaval, and of Edward Hussey-Delaval. We have seen her before as a girl in the family groups, but she is here represented in the character of the _Fair Penitent_, which she acted with other members of the family, and Edward, Duke of York, at their private theatre at Westminster in 1767. She married in 1759, at the age of twenty-two, Sir William Stanhope, next brother to the Earl of Chesterfield, who was fifty-seven; and Horace Walpole writes of the match: “I assure you her face will introduce no plebeian charms into the faces of the Stanhopes.” Naturally the ill-assorted marriage turned out badly, and in 1763 Horace Walpole writes again to his correspondent in Paris: “We sent you Sir William Stanhope and my lady, a fond couple; you have returned them to us very different. When they came to Blackheath, he got out of the chariot to go to his brother, Lord Chesterfield’s, made her a low bow, and said, ‘Madame, I hope I shall never see your face again.’ She replied, ‘Sir, I will take all the pains I can, you never shall.’” She had been brought up by her grandmother, Mrs. Apreece, of Honington and Doddington, and a share of Doddington had been settled upon her, but she sold her reversion of it to her brother Edward in 1810.

Filling the centre of the south end of the gallery is the striking picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1762, of Lord and Lady Pollington, later Earl and Countess of Mexborough, in their coronation robes, with their son and heir, John Savile, afterwards second Earl, as a child, between them. She was the youngest of the Delaval family, and is represented as a girl in the family groups below. She married in 1760 John Savile, Lord Pollington, created Earl of Mexborough in 1765, and died in 1821, the last survivor of that generation of her family. The child is represented as reaching up to the coronet which his mother is holding in her hand; and the story is told “that when Reynolds began to paint this picture he tried the effect of setting the coronet on her head, but being dissatisfied with the effect he placed it in her hand. It was shown to the little boy, and he was offered a choice of the crown or an apple. He preferred the former, and within a year inherited it on his father’s death.” In fact, however, his father did not die till 1778, when his son was seventeen, and the anecdote can only be reconciled with dates by supposing it to refer to the child’s succession to the courtesy title of Pollington, when his father became Earl in 1765.

If we pass out at the southern end of the Long Gallery, the well-like back staircase, carried up from the bottom to the top of the house in a projection of the southern wing, will bring us through the southernmost gazebo on to the flat-leaded roof, on which the two other gazeboes open. Here is plainly seen the ground-plan of the house; and by looking over the parapet we may observe the squared leaden spout-heads, most of them bearing the initials and the Ram’s Head crest of Sir John Hussey-Delaval, with the date 1765. A few bear the date 1733, thus going back to the ownership of Mrs. Apreece. Close in front of the Hall, encouraged by its shelter, a broad-leafed magnolia has out-topped the Hall itself, while in the north-west corner stands the great holly, measuring 12 feet round the hole, but with half its massive head now split off by a great storm, 24th March 1895. Tradition says that it once saved the life of a young lady who was pursued to the roof by a too ardent admirer, and who jumped into it from the roof to escape his embraces.

Round the mansion lie its old-fashioned walled gardens, and on the north the orchard with a picturesque group of three gnarled old Spanish chestnuts. Eastward the eye rests on Lincoln, with its houses climbing the steep, crowned by the triple towers of the Minster; and in the nearer foreground are the massive oak-woods of Doddington and Skellingthorpe, the immemorial breeding-place of herons. To the westward the hills of Nottinghamshire rise across the Trent, the hidden course of whose stream is marked only by the clumps of trees at Spalford Bank and Marnham Ferry. Amid such surroundings the great house has stood for full three hundred years, and has sheltered generation after generation of those whose portraits now adorn its walls. Here to all appearance it may stand for three hundred years to come, if only it escapes that doom of fire to which Seaton-Delaval itself and so many other ancient mansions have fallen a prey.

LINCOLNSHIRE FAMILIES

BY REV. CANON MADDISON, M.A., F.S.A.

It is quite impossible within the limits of a short paper to give an exhaustive account of the Lincolnshire Families. They can be classified as—1st, Baronial; 2nd, Knightly; 3rd, Gentle.

With the baronial, which includes such names as Darcy, Kyme, de Roos, Trehampton, &c., I do not concern myself. Their pedigrees are given, for the most part, in works of reference. Of the great baronial families I do not think a single one exists at the present day in the male line. The Neviles now seated in Lincolnshire belong to the Nottinghamshire branch of that great family. The Lincolnshire Neviles, which have been a puzzle to genealogists, have long since been extinct.