Hever Castle, from the West.
This Edward Waldo was knighted—“at his own house in Cheapside,” the very house he had built—by the King, who was his guest, in 1677. On this occasion “he had the honour of entertaining his sovereign, together with the Princesses Mary and Anne and the Duchess of York, who, from a canopy of state in front of his house, viewed the civic procession pass along Cheapside on its way to Guildhall.” Sir Edward married three times. He died at his residence at Pinner in 1705, aged seventy-five, and was buried at Harrow. Nathaniel and Isaac, third and fourth sons of Daniel Waldo, died unmarried. Timothy, the fifth son, we shall speak of presently. Samuel, the sixth son, citizen and mercer of London, and freeman of the Clothworkers’ Company, married, first, a daughter of Sir Thomas Allen, of Finchley; and, secondly, Susan Churchman; and had, among other issue, Daniel Waldo, one of whose daughters, Sarah (married to Israel Woolliston), died at the age of ninety-eight, leaving her cousin, Col. Sibthorpe, M.P., her executor; Isaac Waldo, one of whose daughters, Sarah, married Humphrey Sibthorpe, M.D., Sheridan Professor of Botany, whose son, Humphrey Sibthorpe, M.P. (father of Col. Sibthorpe, M.P.), assumed for himself and his heirs, by royal sign-manual, the additional name and the arms of Waldo on inheriting the property left him by his relative, Peter Waldo, Esq., of Mitcham and of Warton.
Sir Timothy Waldo, to whom allusion has been made, the purchaser of Hever Castle, was admitted attorney of the King’s Bench and solicitor in Chancery in 1730; in 1739 he was under-sheriff of the city of London, and he was a liveryman and the clerk of the Salters’ Company. In 1736 he married Catherine Wakefield, and had by her an only child, Jane, who married, in 1762, George Medley, Esq., M.P., of Buxted. Sir Timothy, who was knighted in 1769, died at Clapham in 1786, his wife surviving him, and dying in 1806, aged ninety-five.
Their sole daughter and heiress, Jane, wife of George Medley, inherited all the property, including Hever Castle. She had no issue, and died in 1829, in her ninety-second year, leaving her large possessions, the personalty of which was sworn under £180,000, to her cousin, Jane Waldo, only daughter and heiress of Edward Waldo, of London, who administered to the estate as cousin and only next of kin. This lady, who thus became the possessor of Hever Castle, died at Tunbridge Wells in 1840, when the family became extinct. The name of Waldo had, however, been taken by royal sign-manual, in 1830, by Edmund Wakefield Meade, Esq., of Newbridge House, Dawlish, son of Francis Meade, of Lambeth. Edmund Meade-Waldo, Esq., became resident at Stonewall Park, near Hever Castle, which memorable edifice is still in possession of this family. He married Harriet, second daughter of Colonel Rochfort, M.P., by whom he left issue two sons and one daughter; the eldest son and heir being Edmund Waldo Meade-Waldo, Esq. The daughter, Harriet Dorothea, was married, in 1850, to the Rev. W. W. Battye, Rector of Hever, to which living he was presented by his father-in-law.
There are few ancient houses in the kingdom more deeply interesting to the curious occasional visitor than Hever; it does not, however, convey ideas of grandeur or magnificence. It never could have been large. Certainly at no period did it supply ample room to accommodate the suite of a luxurious monarch; and there is little doubt that the visits of the eighth Henry were made, if not secretly, without state, when he went to woo the unhappy lady he afterwards—and not long afterwards—murdered.
In the small chamber of the ground-floor, which still retains its minstrel’s gallery and its panelling of oak, was the bad king entertained by his victims; and in a very tiny chamber slept in pure innocence the object of his lust—a most reluctant bride and most miserable wife.
Anne Boleyn’s Chamber.
Yet Hever Castle was a stronghold, and a place well calculated for safety in the troublous times in which it was built and embattled. It is surrounded by a moat, across which a bridge leads to the entrance gateway. The entrance is defended by a strong portcullis, composed of several large pieces of wood laid across each other like a harrow, and riveted throughout with iron, designed to be let down in case of surprise, and when there was not time to shut the gate. To this succeeds an iron portcullis. It is followed by an inner solid oaken door, riveted with iron, firmly bound with iron pieces going the whole length across, and studded with iron knobs. A wooden portcullis then follows. Immediately adjoining these are two guardrooms, in which a dozen men-at-arms might long dispute the passage of an enemy.
