Part 50
The Library has a beautiful ceiling, and is fitted with carved book-cases, containing editions of all modern authors. In the extensive collection few works of merit and interest are omitted. Over the chimney-piece, with its motto, “Learn to live, live to learn,” is Rembrandt’s grand picture of “Ferdinand and Isabella;” and there are also portraits of Milton and Shakspere, the latter a “life” portrait from Stowe.
The old Drawing-room is wainscoted throughout, and the cornices, door-heads, and mirror-frame are exquisitely and elaborately carved with game, and groups and festoons of fruit and flowers, attributed to Gibbons. In the upper lights of tho windows, of modern insertion, landscapes are introduced.
The Drawing-room, Billiard-room, and other apartments are all of equal elegance, and all filled with costly furniture and choice works of Art, among which are paintings by Beverley, Lance, Solomon, Mole, and others.
In the upper rooms of the house—not, of course, shown to visitors—is preserved the ancient tapestry which adorned the walls of the old mansion; and here, too, are many gems of Art, including examples of Wright of Derby, Wilson, Bright, and others; with Manuel’s “Voyage Subjects,” twenty-two in number. The subjects of the tapestry are as follows:—In the Tapestry-room, the “Story of Lucretia;” in the Dressing-room, portions of a very large tapestry, “The Passage of the Red Sea,” “Moses striking the Rock,” &c. The “Story of Lucretia” is in five panels, very beautifully wrought, obviously from the designs of an accomplished artist. There are also pictures of great worth in some of these rooms; notably a portrait by Holbein of his mother, a series of charming drawings by Henry Bright, and several fine proof engravings of great pictures. Many of the pieces of furniture were purchased at Stowe, and are of great rarity and worth—brilliant examples of Art of a past but honoured age.
The Business-room is a finely groined apartment, hung with rich old tapestry, and contains, among other works of Art, three pictures by Herring, one attributed to Rubens, and some good examples of the old Dutch masters.
The Stables (flanked by a clock-tower of much elegance) lie to the right of the main entrance; they are models of architectural beauty, and are, of course, fitted up with all the modern appliances of comfort and convenience.
In the Church of Somerleyton are preserved the old rood-screen, containing sixteen painted panels of saints, and some of the monuments from the older edifice. Among these are memorials to Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, to Sir John Wentworth and his lady, and to Sir Thomas Jernegan—an altar-tomb, on which, according to Weever and Camden, there was formerly the inscription—
“Jesu Christ, both God and Man, Save thy servant Jernegan.”
On the front of the tomb are three, and at each end one, lozenge-formed panels, in each of which is a quatrefoil with trefoiled cusps. In the centre of each is a shield of arms. On the top of the tomb are places where brasses have at one time been fixed. Among the arms are Appleyard impaled with Jernegan. This tomb has been much impaired by time. It is now, however, carefully preserved.
Another slab bears the inscription, “Margaret Jernegan, the wyef of Edward Jernegan, Esquyer, daughter of Sir Edmund Bedingfelde, Knt., which Margaret dyed the xxiiij of Marche, anno MDIII.”
The monument to Sir John Wentworth and his lady bears figures of the knight in armour, with the peaked beard of the times, and the lady habited in a plain dress; an escutcheon has the arms of Wentworth, _azure_, a saltire, _ermine_, between four eagles displayed, _or_; impaling Soame, _gules_, a chevron between three mullets, _or_, quartered with, second, _azure_, two bars gemelles and a canton, _or_, charged with a tun, and, third, _gules_, six annulets, _or_.
The memorial to Sir Thomas Allin is a tablet bearing the following inscription:—“Near this place lies interred Sir Thomas Allin, Bart., whose unshaken fidelity to his sovereign, Charles ye 2nd, was rewarded with many marks of his royal favour, having had the honour of serving him as Admiral in his fleets, in the British and Mediterranean Seas; Controller of the Navy, Captain of Sandgate Castle, and Master of the Trinity House. He died in 1686 in ye 73 year of his age.”
The Church is seen from many parts of the grounds of Somerleyton Hall—always a pleasant object in the landscape—through a grand avenue of elms: a wood-walk footpath leads to it from the house. A fine piece of the park forms a portion of the glebe. The Church is dedicated to St. Mary. A singular and interesting octangular font (in some parts recut), with an inscription, now illegible, is one of its few remains of antiquity.
There is also a small modern Chapel at a little distance from the house, where service is held on Sundays. It was originally erected as a Baptist chapel by Sir Morton Peto. Close to it is a Maze of dwarf yews, kept with exceeding nicety: in the centre is a graceful temple, from the seats of which views are obtained of the gardens and conservatories.
The Conservatories are of great extent, divided into “houses” for all the rarer plants, with vineries, pine-pits, and all the other accessories of abundance at every season of the year.
The principal entrance to the mansion is through iron gates, the stone piers, supporting deer _couchant_, sculptured by John Thomas. This view we have engraved on page 207: it is at once graceful and commanding.
Somerleyton is a magnificent house, but it was erected with a view to comfort as well as elegance; all the rooms, both above and below, are so constructed as to suggest the idea of home; the “appliances and means” of wealth have been judiciously exerted to promote the rational enjoyment of life; ease has not been sacrificed to state; and grandeur has been less studied than content. The house is splendid, and yet homely; there is none of the burden of magnificence either in the mansion or the grounds, while ostentation seems as far removed from the lofty and munificently furnished apartments as from those which ornament a simple cottage dwelling.
Its perfect architectural details, its noble conservatories, its garden, its avenues—one of elm, another of lime trees, stretching from the house across the park—its numerous vases and statues, happily placed—and especially its Winter Garden—all perfect when viewed separately, and all joined in admirable harmony—render Somerleyton remarkable among the most beautiful modern mansions of the kingdom, and do honour to the sculptor-architect under whose superintendence it was planned and executed. Somerleyton, therefore, may be described as one of the gems of the county of Suffolk—a county rich in baronial mansions, abundant of historic events, and full of traditions of the earliest, as well as of mediæval, ages in England.
It would be a long list that which gave even the names of the baronial halls in this grand historic county, and it would far exceed our space to give details of its ancient monuments—Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman—to say nothing of those that have descended to us from the still earlier Britons, many relics of whom are yet to be found in the neighbourhood. Suffolk is, indeed, if less graced by natural beauties than some other of our English shires, rich among the richest of them in antiquities and in traditions, while it has a high and prominent place in British history.
The scenery that neighbours Somerleyton is purely English; the lanes are pleasant and picturesque in spring and summer; the land is productive; the broad river Waveney fertilises miles upon miles of green or arable banks between which it runs; the trees have prodigious growth; and, above all, the sea is near at hand; the German Ocean rolls its waves into the harbours of these eastern shores, bearing the wealth that thousands of hardy fishermen gather in during every month of the year.
From any of the heights, which, though not numerous, occur occasionally, and, in a degree, from any of the roads that skirt the shore, may be seen a “multitudinous shipping,” so to say, from the huge three-master and the grand steamship to the comparatively small fishing-smacks that dot the sea-scape, and the heavily weighted coal vessels that are bearing sources of wealth to all parts of the world. It is to the fishing-smacks the locality is mainly indebted for its prosperity; but Lowestoft now holds rank among the fashionable and most frequented sea watering-places of the kingdom.
WILTON HOUSE.
WE do not refer to the earlier families who held the title of Earls, &c., of Pembroke—those of Montgomery, of Clare, of Marshall, of De Valence, and of Hastings—as they, although the predecessors of the Herberts in the title, were not so in regard to the estates. It has been well said by Sir Bernard Burke that “the name of Pembroke, like the scutcheons and monuments in some time-honoured cathedral, cannot fail to awaken a thousand glorious recollections in the bosoms of all who are but tolerably read in English chronicles. Sound it, and no trumpet of ancient or modern chivalry would peal a higher war-note. It is almost superfluous to repeat that this is the family of which it has been so finely said, that ‘all the men were brave, and all the women chaste;’ and what nobler record was ever engraved upon the tomb of departed greatness?”
We commence our notes with William ap Thomas, whose ancestors traced back to Henry Fitz-Herbert, chamberlain to King Henry I. This Sir William ap Thomas (who was the son of Thomas ap Gwillim ap Jenkin, by his wife Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir John Morley, Knight, Lord of Raglan Castle) married Gladys, daughter of Sir Richard Gam, and widow of Sir Roger Vaughan, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. The eldest of these sons was “created Lord of Raglan, Chepstow, and Gower, and commanded to assume the surname of Herbert, in honour of his ancestor,” the chamberlain to King Henry I., and afterwards Earl of Pembroke. “He was succeeded by his son, who renounced the earldom of Pembroke for that of Huntingdon, at the request of King Edward IV., that monarch being anxious to dignify his son, Prince Edward, with the title of Earl of Pembroke.
The honour, however, reverted to the Herberts in the reign of Edward VI., who conferred it upon Sir William Herbert.” This William Herbert, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Catherine Parr, was knighted by Henry VIII., and was appointed executor, or “conservator,” of the King’s will; and shared with Sir Anthony Denny the honour of riding to Windsor in the chariot with the royal corpse, when Henry’s ashes were committed to their final resting-place. By Edward VI. Sir William was elevated to the peerage by the titles of Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke. In 1551 his wife, the Countess of Pembroke, “died at Baynard’s Castle, and was carried into St. Paul’s in this order: first, there went an hundred poor men and women in mantle-freez gowns; next followed the heralds, and then the corse, about which were eight bannerels of armes, then came the mourners, lordes, knights, and gentlemen; after them the ladies and gentlewomen mourners, to the number of 200 in all; next came in coats 200 of her own and other servants. She was interred by the tomb of the Duke of Lancaster; and after, her banners were set up over her, and her armes set on divers pillars.” The Earl died March 17th, 1569-70, and was succeeded by his son Henry as Earl of Pembroke. This nobleman was thrice married; first, to Catherine, daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, from whom he was afterwards divorced; secondly, to Catherine, daughter of George, Earl of Shrewsbury; and, thirdly, to Mary Sidney, daughter to Sir Henry Sidney, Knight of the Garter, by his wife, the Lady Mary, daughter of John, Duke of Northumberland. This lady, the third wife of the Earl of Pembroke, was sister to one of the greatest of all great Englishmen—Sir Philip Sidney; and it was for her special delight that he, while visiting her at Wilton, wrote his inimitable “Arcadia.” By this lady the Earl of Pembroke had two sons, William and Philip, both of whom in turn succeeded to the earldom. The Countess, “Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother,” “a principal ornament to the family of the Sidneys,” and of whom Spenser wrote that she was
“The gentlest shepherdess that liv’d that day, And most resembling, both in shape and spirit, Her brother dear,”
survived her husband some time, and at her death, which took place in 1621, that beautiful epitaph so often quoted, and as often erroneously ascribed to Ben Jonson, was penned by William Browne, and will bear again quoting here:—
“Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse; _Sidney’s_ sister! _Pembroke’s_ mother! Death, ere thou hast slain another Fair, and learn’d, and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee! Marble piles let no man raise To her name for after days; Some kind woman, born as she, Reading this, like Niobe Shall turn marble, and become Both her mourner and her tomb.”
William, third Earl of Pembroke under the new creation, eldest son of the Earl and of “Sidney’s sister,” succeeded to the title and estates on the death of his father in 1600-1. Of him Aubrey says, “He was of a most noble person, and the glory of the court in the reigne of King James and King Charles. He was handsome and of an admirable presence.
‘Gratior et pulchro veniens a corpore virtus.’
He was the greatest Mecænas to learned men of any peer of his time—or since. He was very generous and open-handed. He gave a noble collection of choice bookes and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which remain there as an honourable monument of his munificence. ‘Twas thought, had he not been suddenly snatcht away by death, to the grief of all learned and good men, that he would have been a great benefactor to Pembroke College, in Oxford; whereas, there remains only from him a great piece of plate that he gave there. He was a good scholar, and delighted in poetrie; and did sometimes, for his diversion, write some sonnets and epigrammes which deserve commendation. Some of them are in print in a little book in 8vo., intituled ‘Poems writt by William, Earle of Pembroke, and Sir Benjamin Ruddyer, Knight, 1660.’”
His lordship married Mary, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, by his countess, Mary, daughter of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, and his wife, Elizabeth Hardwick—“Bess of Hardwick”—afterwards Countess of Shrewsbury. By this marriage the Earl of Pembroke had two sons, who died in their infancy. Dying without surviving issue, he was succeeded in the title and estates by his brother, Philip Herbert, who thus became fourth Earl of Pembroke, and was shortly afterwards created Earl of Montgomery, and appointed Lord Chamberlain, Gentleman of the King’s Bed-chamber, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries. He was twice married: first, to Lady Susan Vere, daughter to the Earl of Oxford, by whom he had a numerous family; and, secondly, to Anne, daughter and heiress of George, Earl of Cumberland, and widow of Richard, Earl of Dorset.
Dying in 1649-51, the Earl was succeeded by his fourth but eldest surviving son, Philip, as Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. This nobleman married, first, Penelope, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Naunton; and, secondly, Catherine, daughter of Sir William Villiers, and, dying in 1669-70, was in his turn succeeded by the eldest son of his first marriage, William, who, dying unmarried, was succeeded by his half-brother, Philip (the son of his father by his second wife), who thus became seventh Earl of Pembroke, and fourth Earl of Montgomery. This nobleman married Henrietta de Querouaille, sister to the Duchess of Portsmouth, but dying without male issue, the title and estates devolved on his younger brother, Thomas, eighth Earl of Pembroke, who held distinguished offices under William III., Queen Anne, and George I., and was the founder of the noble collection of sculptures, &c., at Wilton. His lordship married three times, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, as ninth earl, of whose taste Lord Orford says, “Besides his works at Wilton, the new lodge in Windsor Park, the Countess of Suffolk’s house at Marble Hill, Twickenham, the water house in Lord Orford’s park at Houghton, are incontestable proofs of his taste: it was more than taste, it was passion for the utility and honour of his country, that engaged his lordship to promote and assiduously overlook the construction of Westminster Bridge by the ingenious Monsieur Labeyle.”
He was succeeded in the title and estates by his son, Henry, as tenth Earl of Pembroke and Earl of Montgomery, who, marrying Elizabeth, second daughter of Charles Spencer, Duke of Marlborough, had issue one son and one daughter, and, dying in 1794, was succeeded by his son, George Augustus Herbert, as eleventh Earl of Pembroke, &c.
That nobleman married, first, in 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of Topham Beauclerk, Esq., son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk, and by her, who died in 1793, had issue the Lady Diana, married to the Earl of Normanton, and one son, Robert Henry, who succeeded him; and, secondly, in 1808, Catherine, daughter of Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, by whom he had issue one son, the Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., and Secretary for War, created, in 1861, Lord Herbert of Lea (which title has now merged into the earldom of Pembroke), and five daughters—viz. the Lady Elizabeth, married to the Earl of Clanwilliam; the Lady Mary Caroline; the Lady Catherine; the Lady Georgiana; and the Lady Emma. His lordship, dying in 1827, was succeeded by the son of his first marriage, Robert Henry Herbert, as twelfth Earl of Pembroke, &c. This nobleman was born in 1791, and married, in 1814, the Princess Octavia Spinelli, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, and widow of the Sicilian Prince Buttera de Rubari, by whom he had no issue. He died in 1862, and (his half-brother, Sidney Herbert, Baron Herbert of Lea, the heir to the title, having died a few months before him) was succeeded by his nephew (the son of that honoured statesman), George Robert Charles Herbert, the present peer—the thirteenth earl—then a minor.
The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, who was born in 1810, married, in 1846, Elizabeth, only daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Ashe A’Court, who survives him, and is the present Baroness Herbert of Lea. By her he had issue four sons and three daughters—viz. George Robert Charles Herbert, now Earl of Pembroke; Sidney, Lord Herbert, who is heir-presumptive to his brother, and was born in 1853; William Reginald Herbert, born in 1854; Michael Henry Herbert, born in 1857; Mary Catherine Herbert, born in 1849; Elizabeth Maude Herbert, born in 1851; and Constance Gwladys, born in 1859. Lord Herbert of Lea died in 1861, and was succeeded in that title by his eldest son, George Robert Charles Herbert, then eleven years of age, and who, eight months later, succeeded to the full family estates and earldom.
The present peer, the Right Hon. George Robert Charles, thirteenth Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Montgomery, Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Baron Herbert of Shurland, and Baron Herbert of Lea, Hereditary Visitor of Jesus College, Oxford, and High Steward of Wilton, was born July 6th, 1850, and succeeded his father as second Baron Herbert of Lea, in 1861, and his uncle as Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, &c., in 1862. His lordship, in 1874, married the Lady Gertrude Frances Talbot, daughter of the eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, and sister of the present earl.
The arms of the Earl of Pembroke are—party per pale, _azure_ and _gules_, three lions rampant, _argent_. The crest is a wyvern, _vert_, holding in its mouth a sinister hand couped at the wrist, _gules_. The supporters are—dexter, a panther guardant, _argent_, incensed, spotted, _or_, _vert_, _sable_, _azure_, and _gules_ alternately, ducally collared, _azure_; sinister, a lion, _argent_, ducally collared, _or_. Motto—“Ung je serviray.” The Earl is patron of twelve livings, ten of which are in Wiltshire, one in Dorsetshire, and one in Shropshire.
His lordship’s brothers and sisters, children of Lord Herbert of Lea, were, on his succeeding to the earldom, raised to the rank of earls’ children by royal warrant in 1862.
Wilton, a town of “great antiquity,” is situated at the conflux of the rivers Nadder and Willey, from the latter of which it is said to derive its name—“Willytown” or “Wilton:” “in Latin it is called Ellandunum.” The ancient Britons had one of their chief seats here; it was a capital of the West Saxons, and was undoubtedly famous long before the Norman Conquest. Afterwards it obtained renown from the number and importance of its monastic establishments. Leland informs us that it had over twelve parish churches. Of its abbey there are no remains. It was dissolved in the thirty-fifth year of King Henry VIII., and the site and buildings given to Sir William Herbert, afterwards created Earl of Pembroke; while from its relics Wilton House was principally built.[47]
Wilton House—one of the grandest and most beautiful in the kingdom, and the entrance to which adjoins the town—stands on the site of a monastery of Saxon foundation, which, on the dissolution, was levelled with the ground. As we have just intimated, no portion whatever of the monastic buildings remains, but there can be no doubt they were of considerable extent and importance. The mansion was built partly from the designs, it is said, of Hans Holbein, to whom is ascribed the porch, which, however, in the early part of the present century was much altered. “The garden front was built by M. Solomon de Caus in the reign of Charles I., and, having been destroyed by fire in 1648, was re-erected by Webb from plans which are presumed to have been furnished by Inigo Jones. In the commencement of the present century the house was considerably enlarged and remodelled by James Wyatt, R.A., one of the principal additions being the cloisters for the display and preservation of the magnificent collection of sculptures. The general plan of the house is a hollow square, the glazed cloister occupying the central space.”
In this Cloister, and in the Hall that leads to it, are the famous “marbles” which form so prominent a feature in the attractions of Wilton—statues, busts, bassi-relievi, urns, vases, fragments of various kinds—a wonderful assemblage of remains of Greece and Rome.[48] The collection was formed towards the close of the last century by Thomas, Earl of Pembroke, who purchased such of the Earl of Arundel’s collection as had been placed in the house, which were principally busts; to these he added many purchased at the dispersion of the Giustiniani collection of marbles, and also at the dispersion of the Mazarin collection, and from various other sources.
The Hall contains several statues; but its interest is derived from the many suits of armour by which it is adorned: they are chiefly trophies and memorials of the battle of St. Quentin, fought in 1557, in which the Earl of Pembroke commanded the forces of England. One of the suits was worn by the Earl, and two of them were, it is said, worn by the Constable Montmorency and the Duc de Montpensier, both taken prisoners at that eventful fight. A passage from the Hall leads to the Cloisters, from which, on either side, are entrances to the various apartments: these are furnished with judgment and taste, but their attractions are the pictures that adorn the walls.