Thus the “restorations” have been made in good taste and with sound judgment; and the seat of the Sidneys has regained its rank as one of the finest and most extensive edifices in the county of Kent.
In the interior the “Hall” is remarkably fine and interesting, with good architectural features. The pointed timber roof, upon which the slates are laid, is supported by a series of grotesque life-size corbels; and the screen of the gallery is richly carved and panelled. The gallery—“The Minstrels’ Gallery”—fills the side opposite the dais, and the Gothic windows are narrow and lofty. Every object, indeed, calls to mind and illustrates the age of feudalism. The oak tables, on which retainers feasted, still occupy the hall, and in its centre are the huge dogs in an octagonal enclosure, beneath the louvre, or lanthorn, in the roof, which formerly permitted egress to the smoke.
“On each side of the hall,” writes Mr. Parker, “were two tables and benches, which, if not actually contemporaneous with it, were certainly among the earliest pieces of furniture remaining in England. There was no doubt a similar—or probably a more ornamental—one on the daïs at the upper end of the hall where the Elizabethan table now stood, which was used by the lord and his more honoured guests, the side tables in the lower part of the hall being for the domestics and retainers, and guests of that class. One end of the daïs had been altered, so that the original arrangement could not be seen; but there would necessarily be at one end the sideboard, or buffet, filled with plate, arranged on shelves to be well displayed, whilst it also formed a sort of cupboard, with doors which could be closed and locked. This piece of furniture was usually placed in the recess formed by a bay window in halls of the fifteenth century, but it was doubtful whether the bay window was in use as early as the fourteenth. At the opposite end of the daïs was the door to the staircase of the solar or upper chamber, used as the withdrawing-room for the ladies after dinner; and by its side there was another door leading to the cellar. This was originally the lower chamber under the solar, but afterwards there was often a short passage to the cellar, which was sometimes underground, and the original cellar, or lower chamber, became the parlour. But there were always two chambers, one over the other, behind the daïs, the two together often not reaching so high as the roof of the hall. The upper room was the lord’s chamber, from which there was usually a look-out into the hall, as a check to the more riotous proceedings after the lord and his family or his guests had retired; or for the lords to see that the guests were assembled before descending with his family into the hall. In the centre of the hall was the original hearth or reredos, almost the only one, he believed, remaining. By the side of it were the andirons, or fire-dogs, for arranging logs of wood upon the hearth, and over it was an opening in the roof, with a small ornamented turret to cover it, called a smoke-louvre, which unfortunately had been removed, after having been previously Italianised and spoilt. The custom of having a large fire of logs of wood in the hall continued long after fire-places and chimneys were used in the other chambers; and it was a mistake to suppose that they were unknown in this country until the fifteenth century. There were many fire-places and chimneys of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the chambers, but it was not customary to use them in the hall before the fifteenth. In spite of all the modern contrivances for warming rooms, it might be doubted whether for warming a large and lofty hall it was possible to obtain more heat from the same quantity of fuel than was obtained from the open fire, and where the space was so large and the roof so high that no practical inconvenience could be felt from the smoke, which naturally ascended and escaped by the louvre.”
Leaving the hall, the Ball-room is entered; it is long and narrow, the walls being covered with family portraits—some original, some copies. Queen Elizabeth’s room succeeds: it contains much of the furniture, tapestry-covered, that was placed there when the virgin queen visited the mansion. In one corner is an ancient mandoline; some portraits of the chiefs of the heroic race are here; and here is a singular picture, representing Queen Elizabeth dancing with the Earl of Leicester. The family portraits are gathered in the “Picture Gallery;” it contains no others; none but a member of it has been admitted with one exception—that of Edward VI., who gave the estate to the Sidneys. Among them are several of Sir Philip and Algernon Sidney, one of Sir Philip’s sister, the Countess of Pembroke, to whom he addressed the “Arcadia,” and who is immortalised in the epitaph we have just given, and one by Lely of the “Sacharissa” of the muse of Waller. A small chamber in the mansion contains, however, a few treasures of rarer value than all its copies of “fair women and brave men.” Among some curious family relics and records is a lock of Sir Philip Sidney’s hair; it is of a pale auburn. A lock of the hair of the ill-fated Algernon is also with it, and in tint nearly resembles that of his illustrious great-uncle.
There are many other relics of interest and value scattered throughout the mansion, but towards the close of the last century a grand collection of ancient armour, worn by generations of the Sidneys, richly emblazoned and inlaid, was sold as old iron that cumbered one of the rooms of the house; while MSS. of inestimable worth, including correspondence with the leading worthies of many centuries, mysteriously disappeared, and were probably consumed as waste paper, useful only for lighting fires.
The church at Penshurst is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It immediately adjoins the park, and is connected, by a private walk, with the gardens of the mansion. It is an ancient and very venerable structure, containing many monuments to the Sidneys, and to members of the families of Dragnowt, Cambridge, Egerton, Head, Darkenol, Pawle, and Yden. The most interesting and beautifully wrought of the tombs is to the memory of Sir William Sidney, Knight Banneret, Chamberlain and Steward to Edward VI., and Lord of the Manor of Penshurst, who died in 1553. It stands in a small chapel at the west end of the chancel, and at the foot of the tomb is a very antique figure, carved in marble, supposed to be a memorial to Sir Stephen de Pencestre. Below is the vault which contains the dust of generations of the Sidneys. Sir William Sidney’s monument is a fine example of art, elaborately and delicately sculptured; it contains a long inscription, engraved on a brass tablet, the lettering in which is as clear and as sharp as if it were the work of yesterday. The roof of this chapel is peculiarly light and elegant. In both exterior and interior it is highly picturesque. The oak gallery is one of the earliest erections of the kind that followed the Reformation. Mr. Parker, in his address to the Archæological Society, thus spoke of the church:—“It exhibited specimens of the architecture of various periods, and is interesting as the burial-place of the ancient families that inhabited the mansion. The north side was of the time of Henry III., and was probably built by Sir Stephen Penchester; the south side in the time of Edward III. The chancel chapel at the end of the south aisle was the burial-place of the Pulteney family. There were also two chantry chapels on the north side, one of the time of Edward I., and the other of the time of Henry VI. Amongst the other interesting monuments and tablets there is one commemorative of the late illustrious Lord Hardinge.”
In all respects, therefore, a visit to Penshurst—now by railroad within an hour’s distance of the metropolis—may be described as a rare intellectual treat, opening a full and brilliant page of history, abundant in sources of profitable enjoyment to the antiquary, affording a large recompense to the lover or the professor of Art, and exhibiting nature under a vast variety of aspects.[32]