Palace at Enfield (Vol. viii., p. 271.).—Queen Elizabeth, in the early part of her reign, frequently kept her court at Enfield. Her palace was the manor-house, near the church, of which little now remains. In Lysons' time (1793) it had been in a great measure rebuilt, and divided into tenements. He adds, "the part which contains the old room is in the occupation of Mrs. Perry."
When I saw this room, about twenty years ago, it was in its original state, with oak panels and a richly ornamented ceiling. The chimney-piece was supported by columns of the Ionic and Corinthian order, and decorated with the cognizances of the rose and portcullis, and the arms of France and England quartered, with the garter and the royal supporters. Underneath was this motto, "Sola salus servire Deo, sunt cætera fraudes."
In the garden was a magnificent tree, a cedar of Libanus, which was pointed out to me as having been planted by Queen Elizabeth. But upon this point tradition was at fault. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, p. 138., may be seen an account of this remarkable cedar, which was planted by Dr. Robert Uvedale, the botanist, a tenant of the manor-house in 1670.
The church at Enfield does not date farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. The devices of a rose and ring, which occur over the arches of the nave, seen also upon the tower of Hadley Church, with the date 1444, "supposing it to have been, as is very probable," says Lysons, "a punning cognizance adopted by one of the priors of Walden, to which monastery both churches belonged, will fix the building of the present structure at Enfield to the early part of the fifteenth century."
Edward F. Rimbault.
Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., pp. 65. 160. 232.).—Are not your correspondents on the wrong scent as regards the birthplace of Sir John Vanbrugh? In the memoir prefixed to the collection of his Plays, 2 vols. 12mo., 1759, it is said:
"Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramatic writer, son of Mr. Giles Vanbrugh of London, merchant, was born in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1666. The family of Vanbrugh were for many years merchants of great credit and reputation at Antwerp, and came into England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on account of the persecution for religion."
Mr. Cunningham (Handbook of London, p. 282.) speaks of William Vanderbergh, the supposed father of Sir John, as residing in Lawrence-Poultney Lane in 1677. He refers to Strype's map of Walbrook and Dowgate wards, and A Collection of the Names of the Merchants living in and about the City of London, 12mo. 1677.
The writer of the notice of Sir John Vanbrugh in Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. p. 597., says:
"Vanbrugh was the son of a successful sugar-baker, who rose to be an esquire, and comptroller of the treasury chamber, besides marrying the daughter of Sir Dudley Carlton. It is doubtful whether the dramatist was born in the French Bastile, or the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. The time of his birth was about the year 1666, when Louis XIV. declared war against England. It is certain he was in France at the age of nineteen, and remained there some years."