Part 3

Odd Rode, or Little Moreton-cum-Rode, are noticed as two manors in “The Survey,” and were subsequently granted to Hugh de Mara and Wm. Fitz Nigel. They are described in Domesday, as having inclosures for taking wild deer, and an aerie for hawks. The present divisions of the township are distinguished by the names of Little Moreton and Rode. A branch of the Grahams of Lostock settled in Little Moreton early in the thirteenth century, the third of whom assumed the name of Moreton, and his descendants in the male line continued till the death of Sir W. Moreton in 1763, when his nephew, the Rev. Richard Taylor, took the local name.

In the 12th Henry VIII. Sir W. Brereton made an award between Mr. Wm. Moreton and Mr. Thos. Rode, of Rode, in a dispute “which should sit highest in the churche, and foremost goo in procession:” when he very judiciously awarded between these two sticklers for precedence “That whyther of the said gentylmen may dispende in landes by title of enheritaunce 10 marks or above more than the other, that he shall have the pre-eminence in sitting in the churche, and in gooing in procession, with all other lyke causes in that behalf.”

We fear we must ascribe the rumoured subterranean passages of Moreton Hall, running under the moat to chambers hid in the mound, to no higher authority than that wild fancy which thus gilds, to its own delight, antique and curious buildings in all parts of our country--that native spirit of poetry,--

“One with our feelings and our powers, And rather part of us, than ours,”

without a sprinkling of which, this world in all its teeming beauty might be too much of a dull reality.

PLACE HOUSE,

CORNWALL.

out of the house, in her husband’s absence; whereupon he builded a right faire and strong embateled tower in his house, and embateled it to the walls of his house,--in a manner made it a castle, and unto this day it is the glorie of the towne building of Foey.” This tower we have engraved. John Treffry, most probably a son of the aforesaid Thomas, was high-sheriff of Cornwall in 1482; he left issue several sons, of whom three are portrayed on a large tomb in the adjoining church: one of these, Sir John, was a person of considerable eminence, and, with his brother William, was attainted by Richard III., but afterwards restored by act of parliament to their estates, in the reign of Henry VII. Thomas Treffry, member for the county during the first two parliaments of Philip and Mary, was compelled to leave the country for having opposed the marriage of Mary with the Spanish monarch.

From this last period to the present time we find no names of note in the genealogy of the family; but the estate appears to have been handed down, from one generation to another, in almost unbroken succession; the various members in possession holding a

distinguished position among the old county gentry.

Place House contains numerous apartments, many of which are highly interesting. In the hall is a richly carved ceiling of oak, and on the walls are emblazoned the arms of Edward VI. and the first Earl of Bedford, with quarterings, all well executed; also the arms of Treffry and Tresilhneys, quartered in Queen Elizabeth’s time. In several other parts are likewise the family arms, quartered according to the various periods to which each is assigned. One of the ancient gateways is indicated in the appended cut.

NAWORTH,

CUMBERLAND.

and the doors almost wholly cased with iron, moving on ponderous hinges, and with massive bolts, which ‘make a harsh and horrid clang that echoes fearfully through the winding passages.’ ‘The Great Hall,’ measuring 70 feet by 24, is lighted by a range of windows, placed high up near the ceiling, and a large oriel window at the southern end. The ceiling is formed of wood panels in large squares, in number above one hundred, on which are painted portraits of the Saxon Kings, and the Sovereigns of

England, down to the Union of the Houses of York and Lancaster, with many other noble personages; ‘they have, however, no recommendation but their antiquity.’ The Minstrels’ Gallery has been removed. In the Dining Hall are two portraits of the Lady of Lord William--one in her fourteenth year, just after she became a bride; the other when her years were three-score ten and three. The Chapel retains much of its original condition--a pulpit and stall of oak, and a painted window, exhibiting a Knight and Dame kneeling, being among the most remarkable objects that yet endure. The apartments of Lord William Howard are, however, those to which the chief interest is attached. They are entered at the east end of the long Gallery. The approach to them was secured by iron-bound doors, several in succession, containing numerous huge bolts, running far into the stone work. The strongest defends a narrow winding staircase, up which only one person can pass; a short dark passage leads to the bed-chamber; (pictured on the opposite page) in which the ‘original furniture’ is preserved.”[10] Among the rest, the plain and simple bed on which, it is said, belted Will slept. Above the stone mantel-piece are three sculptured shields with the arms of the Dacres. Above the bed-room, reached by the narrow stone staircase referred to, are the Library and the Oratory of Lord William.

The Library, here pictured, still contains some curious MSS., with a large collection

of rare old books, many of them having the autograph of Lord William. “Not a book has been added,” according to Pennant, “since his days.” The windows of this apartment are narrow, and are reached by an ascent of three steps:--“such was the caution of the times.” The ceiling is richly carved; the corbels and bosses being embellished with armorial devices; the skirting of the room is of oak, “black from age.” Lord William was--as he is styled by Camden, “a lover of the venerable antiquities,” and in this apartment much of his leisure time was spent.[11]

The other Chamber which tradition closely associates with the memory of the Lord William, is “the Oratory,” situated near the Library. “It is fitted up with plain

wainscot, painted red, and ornamented with escallop-shells and cross-crosslets--armorial devices of the Dacres and the Howards. There are also some fragments of what is supposed to have been the rich screen of the Rood-loft of Lanercost Priory Church, consisting of carved ornaments of pierced work, in wood, richly painted and gilt, nailed up on the walls of the apartment.” The Confessional is a small dark closet within the Oratory, unfurnished. The dungeons of the Castle consist of “four dens, under the great square Tower at the south-west angle.” They “instil horror into the beholder:” there is no chink or crevice for the admission of light; and, in one of the cells, a ring, to which prisoners were chained, is still appended to the wall. In a note to “The Legend of Montrose,” Sir Walter Scott states that a private staircase led to these dungeons from the apartment of Lord William. The author of a little book, “A Guide to Naworth and Lanercost,” from which we have borrowed some of our details, sought for this passage in vain.

Few of the ancient Baronial dwellings of our English nobles possess a deeper interest than that of Naworth. It supplies a striking and emphatic illustration of the rude and lawless period of its erection, when security was the object chiefly aimed at; but mingling adornment with strength, and being a refinement upon the cheerless and gloomy structures of the Anglo-Norman chiefs; “expanding into a mixture of the castle and the mansion;” and marking the splendour of our early nobles, “before they exchanged the hospitable magnificence of a life spent among a numerous tenantry, for the uncertain honours of Court attendance, and the equivocal rewards of ministerial favour.” To borrow an eloquent passage from the “Border Antiquities:” “The vast and solid mansions of our ancient nobility were like their characters--greatness without elegance; strength without refinement; but lofty, firm, and commanding.”

HADDON HALL,

DERBYSHIRE.

The first Duke resided here in great state, maintaining seven score servants, and keeping Christmas with open house, as his father had done before him, “in the true style of old English hospitality.”[14] In the reign of Queen Anne, the family finally quitted Haddon as a place of residence, and in 1760 the old hall was despoiled of nearly all its moveable furniture, which was taken to Belvoir Castle, where it still remains. Since that period Haddon has been carefully preserved, and, except on one or two occasions, when the festivities of the place were for a moment revived, a solemn stillness has reigned throughout its precincts, broken only by the tread of the occasional visitor.

The Hall occupies a situation of extreme beauty, being placed on a bold shelving

mass of limestone, at the base of which runs the river Wye. It is surrounded by well-grown woods, and offers an almost infinite variety of rich subjects for the artist. It has much of the appearance of an old fortress, but is in reality little fitted for defence; the greater part of the present building having been erected by the Vernons and Manners in times when moral force and law had happily taken the place of the tenure by which property was maintained in earlier ages. The buildings cover a considerable space of ground, and are arranged in the form of a double square, enclosing two quadrangular courts. The entrance-tower, at the north-west corner, is one of the more ancient parts of the structure. The entrance is by a large arched gateway, leading to a flight of old dilapidated steps, on ascending which the visitor finds himself in the first great court.

The interior of the building has been so well and so minutely described by Mr. King, in the “Archæologia,” that we will transfer some of his remarks to our pages. Beginning, then, with this tower, he says:--

“The approach is by a steep hill, which a horse can scarcely climb, and which continues quite to the great arched gateway that forms the entrance: this is directly under a high tower, and seems originally to have had double gates. From hence you pass into a large square court, entirely surrounded by the apartments, and paved with flat stones. But you ascend it, at the corner, by a flight of angular steps, just within the gate, in such a manner that it is impossible to have admittance otherwise than on foot, and no horse or carriage could ever approach the door of the house. After crossing this court, you come to a second flight of steps, which lead up directly to the great porch, under a small tower, on passing through which you find yourself behind the screen of the Great Hall,--a room that was originally considered as the public dining-room for the lord and his guests, and, indeed, after them, for the whole family; for, in tracing the ancient apartments, there appears manifestly to have been none besides of sufficient magnitude for either the one purpose or the other.” From this hall a flight of steps leads to the upper chambers.