Early Renaissance Architecture in England / A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625

by J. Alfred Gotch

M. Stables.

N. Porter's Lodge.

The accompanying plan of the lay-out of Holdenby (Fig. [55]), from a survey made in 1587, gives a good idea of the surroundings of the larger Elizabethan houses. The road between two villages ran along the north side of the park, and from this road branched another one which led up to the house. While it traversed the park it was allowed to wind according to the undulations of the ground, but when it came to within a quarter of a mile of the lodge it was made perfectly straight, and so ran through the midst of "the green"—"a large, long, straight, fair way," as Lord Burghley called it. It led directly to the porter's lodge, which was a building separate from the house, and self-contained, and it passed the long range of stabling on the right. The porter's lodge opened into the first court, the "base-court," as it was called, walled round, and entered on its two sides by large gateways. At the further end of the base-court stood the house, raised a few steps above the general level, where Lord Burghley "found a great magnificence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so every part answerable to other, to allure liking." The house was built round two great courts, the first 128 feet by 104 feet, the second 140 feet by 110 feet, comparable in point of size to those at Hampton Court, and a good deal more intricate in detail. To the north of the house itself were two walled gardens, of nearly an acre each, and beyond these were spinneys, or small woods, and the little village with its inn. The ground on the south side of the house sloped pretty steeply away, and was laid out in a series of terraces. At the top of these, and flanking the whole length of the base-court, the house, and the orchard beyond, ran a broad straight path. In the midst of the terraces a great platform was run out at the level of this long path, containing a rosery laid out with paths in a simple geometrical pattern. At the extreme end of the long path was a cross-path leading each way to a prospect mount, up at least one of which wound a spiral path, ending (in all probability) in a banqueting house, such as Lord Bacon describes in his essay "Of Gardens," and such as the Parliamentary Commissioners describe as being at Nonesuch in the year 1650. At the foot of the terraces lay fishponds amid orchard-trees, and, in a small enclosure of its own, the church. Close to the church was the site of the old manor house, the home of Sir Christopher Hatton's fathers, but which he found far too insignificant a dwelling for the Lord Chancellor.

Such were the surroundings of one of the most splendid palaces of Elizabeth's splendid courtiers, and an examination of the contemporary survey shows upon what a large scale the house and its appurtenances were laid out. The house covered nearly two acres; the base-court more than one acre; the green more than seventeen. In comparison with the house the village is a mere collection of outhouses, not so extensive as the range of stabling. The garden has not acquired all the architectural adjuncts in the way of stone terraces, and garden-houses, lead vases, statuary and jets d'eau, which became fashionable a hundred years later; but it has a fine simplicity about it and a largeness of scale which are in keeping with the house it belongs to.

56.—Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire. Block Plan.

Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, was the model upon which Sir Christopher Hatton professed to have founded his own more magnificent house at Holdenby, and there is an interesting account, written by John Savile, of King James's visit to Theobalds on his first coming to London in 1603.[12] It is an early example of descriptive reporting which would do credit to one of our great daily papers. Theobalds was the house of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, and had been built and embellished by his father, the great Lord Treasurer. The writer particularly mentions the approach to the house, which stood back from the highway, unlike the "manie sumptuous buildings" in the neighbourhood, most of which belonged "to the cittie marchants." It was reached by a most stately walk raised above the general level, and beset about either side with young elm and ash trees extending from the common street way to the first court belonging to the house. In order to obtain full particulars of the proceedings, Savile stationed one of his party at the upper end of the walk, another at the upper end of the first court, while a third stood at the second court door, and he also arranged with "a gentleman of good sort" to stand in the court that led into the hall, and furnish particulars of the ceremonies invisible to the others. After the king had at length entered the house, the crowd of sightseers surged even into the uppermost court, apparently without protest from the porter, and to their view the monarch graciously displayed himself at his windows for the space of half an hour, previous to going into the "laberinth-like garden to walke."

[12]Nichols' Progresses of King James I., Vol. I. 135.

Lodges and Gateways.

Sometimes the lodge formed part of the buildings enclosing the first court, in which case one or two rooms or "lodgings" of the wing on either side of the gateway would be devoted to the porter, in the same way as the entrance to most of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge is still arranged. But very frequently it was separated from the house by a court enclosed by a wall, as it was at Holdenby, and again at the much smaller house at Doddington (Fig. [56]). This wall was sometimes high and solid, and sometimes coped "leaning height," as John Thorpe has it on one of his plans, or sometimes pierced with ornamental patterns.