“It is now safe in its usual place under my Escritoire.... The Bottle itself is Antony Payne’s Allowance which used to be filled for him every morning at Stowe, and as I measured it last week and found it Six Quarts it ought to have sufficed him.”
From “Collectanea Cornubiensia,” by G. C. Boase (1890), we get the following details as to the portrait of Anthony Payne. In August, 1888, the collection of antiquities at Trematon Castle, near Saltash, was sold by auction on behalf of the executors of Admiral Tucker. One of the lots was the portrait of Payne, and it was sold to a Plymouth dealer for about £4. Through the good offices of Major Parkyn of Truro, Mr. Harvey, on February 12th, 1889, purchased the picture from Skardon & Sons of Plymouth, and presented it to the Royal Institution of Cornwall at Truro.
[The Editor will be very glad to hear from any reader who may be able to supply further information about Anthony Payne, his birth, life, will, etc., that could be added to a future edition of this book.]
APPENDIX Ea (p. [109])
STOWE AND THE GRANVILLES
By The Rev. Prebendary ROGER GRANVILLE
Hals states that Sir Thomas Grenvile (temp. Henry VI.) was the first of the family who resided at Stowe, but Bishop Brantyngham licensed a chapel there for Sir John de Grenvile on August 30th, 1386, and Henry de Grenvile was buried at Kilkhampton about 1327, and the inquisition after his death was taken there, and I believe that Henry de Grenvile was the first to reside regularly at Stowe. His father, Bartholomew, constantly signed deeds at Bideford, and Bishop Stapledon granted him a license for the celebration of divine service “in capellâ suâ de Bydeford.” So that I think it is safe to say that the Grenviles resided at Stowe from at least the reign of Edward III.
The place was maintained in much style, I expect, in the time of Sir Roger de Grenvile, “the great housekeeper,” famed far and wide for his princely hospitality. Charles Kingsley’s description of the old house in Elizabethan times is probably pretty accurate.
“A huge rambling building, half castle, half dwelling-house. On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the lofty walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated turrets, loop-holes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones and fire on the besiegers, but the southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art. And towards the east, where the vista of the valley opened, the old walls were gone, and the frowning Norman keep, ruined in the wars of the Roses, had been replaced by the rich and stately architecture of the Tudors. Altogether the house, like the time, was in a transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough the passage of the old Middle Age into the newer life that had just burst into blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn and winter,” etc.
Hawker’s reference to Stowe having been turned into an academy for all the young men of family in the county is correct. He is quoting from George Granville’s (Lord Lansdowne) letter to his nephew, who tells us that Sir Bevill—