The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

The Temple of Concord.

Evelyn, who wrote a little before Pepys—in 1654—says he “went to Audley End, and spent some time in seeing that goodly palace, built by Howard, Earl of Suffolk, once Lord Treasurer. It is a mixed fabric ‘twixt ancient and modern, but observable for its being completely finished; and it is one of the stateliest palaces in the kingdom. It consists of two courts, the first very large, winged with cloisters. The front hath a double entrance; the hall is faire, but somewhat too small for so august a pile; the kitchen is very large, as are the cellars, arched with stone, very neat, and well disposed. These offices are joyned by a wing out of the way very handsomely. The gallery is the most cheerful, and, I think, one of the best in England; a faire dining-roome and the rest of the lodginges answerable, with a pretty chapel. The gardens are not in order, though well inclosed; it has also a bowling-alley, and a nobly walled, wooded, and watered park. The river glides before the palace, to which is an avenue of lime-trees; but all this is much diminished by its being placed in an obscure bottom. For the rest it is perfectly uniform, and shows without like a diadem, by the decoration of the cupolas and other ornaments on the pavilions. Instead of railings and ballusters, there is a bordure of capital letters, as was lately also in Sussex House.”

The Garden.

In 1721, on the advice of that man of little taste, Sir John Vanbrugh the architect, the three sides of the grand quadrangle, which formed so magnificent an entrance to this splendid mansion, were destroyed, along with the kitchen and offices, which were behind the north wing. The chapel and cellars, which projected from the gallery wing at each end, soon shared the same fate. The inner court thus was alone allowed to remain untouched, and the mansion was confined to one hollow square. In 1747 the house was in a state of dilapidation, and projects were set on foot both for pulling it down, and for converting it into a silk manufactory. Two years later, the eastern wing, whose feature was the magnificent gallery, was pulled down. The house was, at an enormous expense, restored, repaired, and made habitable by the first Lord Braybrooke, and, though there remains but a small portion of the original edifice, it is yet a noble and stately building.

We have left ourselves scant space for a description of the noble and very beautiful house, one of the best of those of the Elizabethan era that time has left us, though it is not now as it was when Evelyn pictured it in the quotation we have given; but the gardens are charmingly kept, and have been laid out with taste and skill; the classic river Cam runs in front, and it is here of considerable breadth, Art having utilised the small stream, and made what is technically termed “a sheet of ornamental water;” it is also used to supply fountains and jets d’eau in various parts of the grounds.

The house is distant about a mile from the pretty and picturesque town of Saffron Walden, whose Church holds rank among four of the most perfect examples in Great Britain; and close to it is a Museum containing much that is deeply interesting—many specimens of the earliest races by whom this island was inhabited in the pre-historic ages.

We give several engravings of the house; one of its principal Lodge, one of its attractive Gardens, and one of a comparatively modern structure in the grounds, called the Temple of Concord, built, it is said, to commemorate the recovery of George III. from his first afflicting illness.

Before we reach the house, proceeding from the Audley End station, we may pause awhile to examine the Abbey Farm-buildings and a square of venerable and very comfortable Almshouses, in which “nine old ladies” are passing in ease the residue of their lives—blessing, as we bless, the lord who founded them.

The grand feature of the house is the Hall: it is not, as Evelyn thought it was, “somewhat too small,” but is finely proportioned, in some parts admirably carved, and it contains many portraits—among others that of the founder and his wife and daughter. The ceilings throughout the mansion are of much beauty, and, besides several grand examples of the ancient masters and “throngs” of family portraits, there are some rare specimens of china. There are other curious relics—among them the chair of Alexander Pope, and the carved oak head of Cromwell’s bed, converted into a chimney-piece.