Old English Mansions

by Alfred Yockney

While certain acts of vandalism have been committed by dealers able to turn their knowledge to account, considerable tolerance must be exercised on their behalf. In the first place they demonstrated the importance which should be attached to many objects of antiquity, and in the second place the business men put their weight into the scale against destruction. In the most practical way they prevented examples of craftsmanship from sharing the fate of firewood and rubble. They have kept things of singular merit intact when extinction was probable, and if sometimes they have exaggerated the importance of work which is merely old and not really interesting, their services in educating public opinion more than counterbalance their transgressions. Even the latter may be condoned to some extent, for through them the fame of English craftsmanship has been spread far and wide, developing a desire among students abroad to visit this country and to see in all their glory the priceless works of architecture and decoration remaining supreme in spite of the attacks by man, time, fire, and vandals.

When Goldsmith wrote that he loved “everything that’s old—old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine,” he unaccountably forgot to mention old houses. It may be assumed that the author of “The Deserted Village” included among his delights the actual haunts of his old friends, suggestive of still older times and manners. Looking back on the eighteenth century, when Johnson was uttering his sonorous observations, and Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney were immortalising the illustrious people of the day, we are envious of the opportunities presented to Goldsmith and his contemporaries to study and admire the monuments of the preceding centuries in something approaching perfection. At that time the majority of buildings grouped under the heading of Old English Mansions were unspoiled by decay and environment. They were just mellow and satisfying in every respect. Some of them, of course, had suffered in the Civil War, and bore witness then as now to their unsuitability as places of defence. But on the whole it was Tudor and Jacobean architecture without alloy.

Since the eighteenth century a gradual change has come over most of the buildings, until at the present time but few of them are in anything like a habitable state, though they may still be studied for what they reveal of the past. Some stately mansions like Hatfield House, Holland House, Knole, Penshurst, Charlton House, Kent ([Plate XV]), and Moreton

HENRY SHAW

SIDE OF DRAWING-ROOM AT BOUGHTON MALHERBE, KENT

Old Hall ([Plate XXIII]), have descended from father to son or through allied families, and the inheritance has been maintained, though possibly the structures have been reduced in size or otherwise altered. In some cases the buildings have passed into the hands of strangers willing and able to keep them in repair without modernising them out of recognition. Others, however, have ceased to be anything more than reminders of bygone days, and in various stages of preservation they appeal more or less to students and tourists. In some cases it requires abundant imagination to reconstruct the scenes of which they were the central features. It is easy enough with a few buildings, but we are confronted often by some structures which have become almost de-naturalised under the pressure of urban expansion. They remain as oases in the desert of modern bricks and mortar, dignified still in spite of the affronts of unsympathetic neighbours; but their beauty has faded and no amount of sentiment can gloss over their obvious defects, robbed of their original uses and maimed by their present purposes. The parks which occasionally remain around these old buildings save us sometimes from intensified regret.

Among the most interesting relics of antiquity still retaining an appearance of prosperity are many of the hostelries scattered throughout the country. It gives everyone genuine pleasure to visit the establishments which share with the local church the architectural honours of the village or town, even though, as in the case of a building within easy reach of London, the sign of the inn and the date 1604 are supplemented by the magic word “Garage.” This is typical of many such places for rest and refreshment which are renewing their youth through the revival in travel by road. One may drive beneath archways to the extensive courtyards where proprietors have welcomed the arrival of kings, queens, and courtiers in the olden times, and but for the total difference in costume and the means of conveyance there is very little change in the scene or in the accommodation provided. It often happens that such old places have been devoted originally to domestic purposes, as in the case of the Nag’s Head Inn, Leicester ([Plate LIX]), once a private house, and Feering House, Essex ([Plate X]), which, at the time Fairholt visited it to reconstruct its past, was far from presenting the scene of family happiness the artist so quaintly imagined. The somewhat florid structure which spanned the highway and included the sign of the White Hart Inn at Scole, Norfolk ([Plate XLV]), was removed before the nineteenth century, and Richardson relied for his drawing on an earlier picture. Similar, if not quite so ornate structures are still to be seen in many places. Historians never fail to relate the tradition that at the White Hart Inn, besides this wonderful carved wood structure, was a round bed large enough to hold twenty couples, accommodation which dims the importance attached to the great bed at Ware, that Tudor or earlier piece or elaborate carpentry with a capacity for a mere dozen people. Apart from such freak productions the bedsteads of olden times were usually of ample proportions and were often works of art. Beautifully designed, carved, and inlaid, they were in keeping with the other possessions of the fortunate owners. The example shown from Cumnor Place, Berkshire ([Plate LII]), with its massive pillars and roof, is a reminder of the great and perhaps excessive care bestowed on the manufacture of such pieces of furniture.