castle and the mansion in Horeham that marks a transition period in architecture. One great feature of an earlier style of defence still remains in the moat which originally surrounded the building, but which is now partly filled up: at the back of the mansion, as shewn in our cut, it seems still to encircle the building. The old walls which form the boundary of the garden, and are washed by the water, are stone, and antique. Some fine cedars of ancient growth still flourish by its side, to add a sombre, dignified beauty to the scene. There is a grandeur about old trees which cannot be imparted to a mansion by artificial aid, and which tell forcibly its antiquity. Modern antiques may easily be called into existence by the builder, but the “ancestral trees” are as proud a memento of the early date of an ancient mansion as the coat-armour sculptured on its front.
The Hall is small; it has a minstrel’s gallery, and the dais opposite is still preserved. It is lighted by a magnificent oriel window, and has a greater air of comfort than is found in those of grander proportions. The other rooms have been so much modernised, to suit the habits and tastes of the present age, that scarcely a relic remains to shew their original state.
W. L. Walton, Del et lith. M & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
ST. OSYTH’S PRIORY.