69.—Woollas Hall, Worcestershire. Part of Entrance Front (1611).
70.—Porch at Gorhambury, Hertfordshire (1568).
71.—Hambleton Hall, Rutland.
The ruins at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, a house built by Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Lord Bacon, present another treatment, which can still be made out in spite of the modern brick buttresses, and the brick arch which has been inserted below the original one of stone (Fig. [70]). There is a projecting porch of two storeys, with all its three external faces carefully treated, the front being made rather more elaborate by the introduction of niches with statues. The employment of statues and busts as decorative features was a favourite device of the time. They were almost invariably of classic origin, and attired in classic garb, the most modern personages usually admitted to this distinction being those three of the Nine Worthies who were of Christian extraction. In the spandrils of the arch are circular medallions with busts, and in the parapet are the royal arms. There was also over the arch (we are told) a grey marble panel with four Latin verses, stating that the house was finished in the tenth year of Elizabeth's reign by Nicholas Bacon, whom she made a knight, and Keeper of her Seal. Below these verses was the aphorism "Mediocria firma," that is, "Firm is the middle state." Statues, busts, and inscriptions are all characteristic of the taste of the period, and will be more particularly dealt with later on in connection with the design of chimney-pieces. The house which was thus finished in the tenth year of Elizabeth, that is in 1568, was begun (according to an account in the possession of a local antiquary) on the 1st day of March, 1563, thus taking five years to build. It was not of vast extent, but it comprised two courts, one for the house, the other for the kitchens. The porch illustrated was approached in a direct line across the larger of these courts, and led into the screens in the usual way; the windows visible to the left of the porch lighted the great hall at the daïs end. There is very little left of the old walls, but the extent of the hall can be made out, as well as the position of a clock tower; and at some little distance there remains another niche with a headless statue in it, no doubt that of Henry VIII., which we are told was put up on the occasion of the Queen's second visit to Gorhambury. Her first visit was paid in 1572, four years after the completion of the house, on which occasion the Queen told the Lord Keeper that he had made his house too little for him, whereupon he replied, "Not so, madam, but your Majesty has made me too big for my house." He was, however, resolved not to be open to such a reproach again, and on receiving an intimation that the Queen would visit him a second time (in 1577) he is said to have built a gallery of lath and plaster 120 feet long by 18 feet wide, beneath which were cloisters, and in the middle of their length the statue of King Henry in gilt armour. This enlarging of the house for the express purpose of receiving the Queen was only one of numerous instances, which will be referred to in a subsequent chapter, as also will the proportion of the long galleries so distinctive of the period.
72.—Chastleton, Oxfordshire. Ground Plan (cir. 1603).
1. Hall.