The poet cannot be aware that a very large number of the “parks” of the nobility and gentry of England are “thrown up” not a “dozen times” but a hundred times in every year; and that, frequently, thousands of “the people” breathe therein—as free to all the enjoyments they supply as the owners themselves. Generally, also, on fixed days, the chief rooms, such as are highly decorated or contain pictures—the State Apartments—are open also; and all that wealth has procured, as far as the eye is concerned, is as much the property of the humblest artisan as it is of the lord of the soil.
And what a boon it is to the sons and daughters of toil—the hard-handed men—with their wives and children—workers at the forge, the wheel, and the loom,—who thus make holiday, obtain enjoyment, and gain health, under the shadows of “tall ancestral trees” planted centuries ago by men whose names are histories.
Ruins of Alton Castle.
Indeed a closed park, and a shut-up mansion, are, now, not the rule, but the exception; the noble or wealthy seem eager to share their acquisitions with the people; and continually, as at Alton Towers, picturesque and comfortable “summer houses” have been erected for the ease, shelter, and refreshment of all comers. Visitors of any rank or grade are permitted to wander where they will, and it is gratifying to add, that very rarely has any evil followed such license. At Alton Towers, a few shillings usually pays the cost consequent upon an inroad of four thousand modern “iconoclasts:” the grounds being frequently visited by so many in one day.
The good that hence arises is incalculable: it removes the barriers that separate the rich from the poor, the peer from the peasant, the magnate from the labourer; and contributes to propagate and confirm the true patriotism that arises from holy love of country.
Alton, Alveton, Elveton, or Aulton, was held by the Crown at the time of taking the Domesday survey, but, it would appear, afterwards reverted to its original holders; Rohesia, the only child of the last of whom, brought Alton, by marriage, to Bertram de Verdon, who had been previously married to Maude, daughter of Robert de Ferrars, first Earl of Derby. Alveton thus became the caput baroniæ of the Verdon family, its members being Wooton, Stanton, Farley, Ramsor, Coton, Bradley, Spon, Denston, Stramshall, and Whiston.
From the Verdons, through the Furnivals and Neviles, Alton passed to the Earls of Shrewsbury, as will be seen from the following notice of the Verdon family. Godfreye Compte le Verdon, surnamed de Caplif, had a son, Bertram de Verdon, who held Farnham Royal, Bucks, by grand sergeantry, circa 1080. He had three sons, one of whom, Norman de Verdon, Lord of Weobly, co. Hereford, married Lasceline, daughter of Geoffrey de Clinton, and by her had, with other issue, Bertram de Verdon, who was a Crusader, and founded Croxden, or Crokesden, Abbey, near Alton, in the twenty-third year of Henry II., anno 1176. He married twice: his first wife being Maude, daughter of Robert de Ferrars, first Earl of Derby (who died without issue in 1139), and his second being Rohesia, daughter and heiress of a former possessor of Alton, through which marriage he became possessed of that manor, castle, &c. He was Sheriff of the counties of Warwick and Leicester, and, dying at Joppa, was buried at Acre. By his wife Rohesia (who died in 1215) he had issue—William; Thomas, who married Eustachia, daughter of Gilbert Bassett; Bertram; Robert; Walter, who was Constable of Bruges Castle; and Nicholas, through whom the line is continued through John de Verdon, who, marrying Marjorie, one of the co-heiresses of Walter de Lacie, Lord Palatine of the county of Meath, had issue by her—Sir Nicholas de Verdon of Ewyas-Lacie Castle; John de Verdon, Lord of Weobly; Humphrey; Thomas; Agnes; and Theobald, who was Constable of Ireland, 3rd Edward I., and was in 1306 summoned as Baron Verdon. He died at Alton in 1309, and was buried at Croxden Abbey. His son, Theobald de Verdon, by his first wife, Elizabeth, widow of John de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, and daughter and one of the co-heiresses of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, by “Joane de Acres,” had a daughter, married to Lord Ferrars of Groby; and, by his second wife, Maude, daughter of Edmund, first Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, had issue, besides three sons who died during his lifetime, three daughters, who became his co-heiresses.
Alton Towers, from the Terrace.