The old world and its ways

by William Jennings Bryan

MELROSE ABBEY.

The inheritance tax is quite a heavy burden upon the owners of these estates, and many of the landholders are so impoverished that they are obliged to rent their estates in order to raise the money to meet the tax.

Mr. Moreton Frewen, who contributed many articles to the silver literature in 1896, and whose wife is of American birth, took us down to his place, Brede, which is within sight of the battlefield of Hastings. It is a fine old house with a splendid view, and the oak doors and woodwork, although five or six hundred years old, are as good as new. On the way to Brede we stopped for luncheon at Knole, another famous country place owned by the West family. The present occupant, Lord Sackville West, was once Ambassador to America. It is a historic place, and has seven courts, fifty-two stairways and three hundred and sixty-five windows. The earliest record shows that the Earl of Albemarle gave the estate to his daughter when she was married to the Earl of Pembroke. Afterward, it came into the possession of Lord Saye and Sele, and he conveyed it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who at his death bequeathed it to the See of Canterbury. Cranmer occupied the place in the sixteenth century, and conveyed it to Henry the Eighth. (Cranmer will be remembered as one of the three bishops who were burned at the stake.) It was once in the possession of Queen Mary and afterward of Queen Elizabeth, who conveyed it to Dudley, her favorite Earl. The house is a veritable museum and art gallery, and contains hundred of pictures, many of them of kings and others prominent in English history. One of the rooms was fitted up by James First for himself when he paid a visit to Knole, and the room is kept as it was. The bed is said to have cost forty thousand dollars, and the curtains and bed cover are embroidered with gold and silver. The mattresses are of white satin, and the walls are hung with Flemish tapestry representing scenes from the history of Nebuchadnezzar.

The great hall used as a dining room is seventy-five feet long and half as wide. At one end is a raised floor where the table of the Lord of the Manor stood; below him sat the retainers and lower members of the household. A list of one hundred and twenty-six names is preserved, that being the number of those who regularly took their meals in the hall in 1624. In this hall there is a large collection of silver and pewter vessels handed down from generation to generation. The grounds and gardens, I need hardly add, are in keeping with the interior of the castle. We saw here one of the prettiest specimens of the skill of the horticulturist's art that has come under our observation. Grape vines are grown in large pots and trained upon a hoop-like trellis. When we were there the clusters of ripened grapes added to the beauty of the vines.

We spent one night at Broughton Castle as the guests of Lord and Lady Lennox. The host and hostess have often visited the United States, and are quite liberal in their political views. They are also identified with the community, encouraging artistic industry such as wood carving and the like, by which the young people may add to their income as well as develop their taste. In this connection it should be explained that the owner of an estate occupies a responsible position. While he draws rent from his tenants, he is expected to be their patron and protector, as well as their general advisor. He provides the Christmas festivities, gives presents to the children and looks after the sick.

The moral standards which he sets up have a large influence upon the religious and social life of the community, and the conscientious land owner is able to do a great deal of good.

Broughton Castle is near Banbury—the Banbury Cross, immortalized in child rhymes by the woman "who rode a white horse"—and was frequented by Cromwell and his chiefs. In fact, in one of the rooms, as tradition goes, the death warrant of Charles the First was signed. The house is of stone and the roof is covered with stone tiles—and a good roof it still is, though six hundred years old. In some of the rooms fine oak paneling had been painted over, and in other rooms handsome stone walls had been disfigured with plaster, but the present occupant is restoring these. As in many of the larger and older country places, Broughton has a little chapel of its own where the family assembled for divine service. The castle is surrounded by a shaded lawn, ornamented by hedge, evergreens, flower beds and rose-covered arbors, and around all these runs the moat, fed from neighboring streams. The memory of feudal times is preserved by the towers, drawbridge and massive gates. English history is illuminated by these ancient country seats, and much in English home life is explained that would otherwise be difficult to understand.

Warwick Castle is near Lemington and but a few miles from Broughton. It is probably the most visited of all the castles of England and is still in the family of the Earl of Warwick, the king maker. It is built upon the banks of the Avon and has a deep, dark dungeon and lofty towers and all the accessories of an ancient fortress. The great hall is filled with armor and heirlooms. The house contains a valuable collection of paintings by old masters and the furniture of the sleeping rooms is as remarkable for its design as for its antiquity. A few weeks ago a pageant, illustrating the history of the castle, was given on the banks of the stream and attended by some twenty thousand visitors.

So much for the great estates of England. They are still maintained and the system is still defended by manly English statesmen as the one best calculated to preserve the family and the present social structure. There does not seem to be as much opposition here as an American would suppose to this system, under which priority of birth carries with it so great an advantage over those born afterward. The younger children, reared to expect little except in case of the death of those older, seem to accept the situation as a matter of course, and tenants, descended from generations of tenants, seem to acquiesce without protest in a tenure which deprives them of the prospect of ownership. While one can appreciate the beauty of the manors and admit that they could not be maintained under any other system than that which gives them entire to one member of the family and prevents alienation, still an American finds his admiration for American institutions increasing while he travels, for to him the advantages that flow from individual ownership, and the division of estates at death, seem infinitely greater than any that are to be derived from the English system. A hundred farmers, stimulated by hope and secure in their holdings, contribute more than one country gentleman and ninety-nine tenants possibly can to the strength and vigor of a state.