Petro Le Neve Ar.
Norroy. tab. d.d.
Ws. Stukeley
Stukeley delin.
J. Harris Sculp.
Eltabona.Through Kettering we went to Northampton, the most elegant town in England: which, being wholly burnt down, is rebuilt with great regularity and beauty. There is a spacious square market-place, a fine assize-house of Corinthian architecture. Allhallow’s church is built after a pretty model, with a cupola and a noble portico before it of eight lofty Ionic columns: upon the balustrade a statue of king Charles II. There is an inscription of John Bailes, aged above 126: his sight, hearing and memory, intire; buried 1706. One of the old churches, St. Sepulchre’s, seems to have belonged to the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, of a circular form: there has been another tacked to it of later date, with a choir and steeple, as to that at Cambridge of the same name and figure: another such I am told is at Guildford, which are all of this sort that I know of in England. I suspect these are the most ancient churches in England, and probably built in the later times of the Romans for Christian service, at least in the early Saxon reigns. Westward are the ruins of the castle, by the river side, built by Simon Silvanect I. earl of Northampton, who founded here likewise St. Andrew’s abbey: his son Simon Silvanect II. earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, founded St. Mary de Près abbey here about 1150. This probably is a Roman town arising from one of the forts built upon this river, as that great people proceeded northward in the conquest of the island; and being mentioned by Ravennas between Leicester and Stoney Stratford, it is very likely the Eltabona there, meaning ael, supercilium, and Avon, the river. Roman coins have been found on the other side the river: there are likewise the footsteps of the fortifications round the town, thrown up with bastions in the time of the civil wars. Under those on the south side, descending into a stone quarry which has abundance of intricate turnings, I saw a piece of oak wood, as big as both one’s hands, lie between the strata of solid stone: though petrified, the ligneous fibres when split would burn in a candle. I suppose it to have been lodged there in the deluge. A little way from the town, about Sprotton, are the pits where they dig up tobacco-pipe clay. Near Billing, about three miles from Northampton, not far from the earl of Twomond’s seat, was lately found a mine of copper, and coal, and marble, as they told me.
From Northampton, over the river, by a large stone bridge where is an old religious house, half a mile off in the London road, is another of queen Eleanor’s stone crosses, called Queen’s cross, with her images and arms. It stands on a hill in the open country upon eight steps, in form much like that of Waltham, of which I have given a print.TAB. XII. On the other side of the town, about three miles distance, is Holdenby house, which lies in noble ruins: here king Charles I. was kept prisoner. A little way off is Naseby,[33] where the bloody and fatal battle happened between his forces and those of the parliament, upon a fine plain where at present stands a windmill: the marks of several great holes appear, where the slain were buried. This town, as near as may be, is the navel of England. Near isGuildsborough. Roman Camp. Guildsborough, so named from a Roman camp of a square form, and deep ditch, called the Burrows. I was told of several more thereabouts, which I suppose those made in the time of Ostorius about the heads of the rivers here; which all together made a sort of fortification between the north and south parts of the kingdom, especially between the Avon and Severn. A long barrow at Pesford, called Longman’s hill. We saw Althorp, a curious seat of the earl of Sunderland’s, elegantly furnished: there is a fine gallery adorned with good pictures, and a noble library.
Eston.
My lord Lemster’s seat, now earl of Pomfret, near Towcester, is a stately building, and stands pleasantly, encompassed with good plantations of wood, visto’s and agreeable prospects. In the grand view to the back front, beyond the garden, is a large and long canal: in the house are several curious pictures; an original, of Sir Paul Ricot; of a pillar of Persepolis, one of those sixty foot high; Perseus loosing Andromeda, by Gioseppi Cari; a copy of Galatea, from Raphael: but what highly inhances the glory of this seat, is the vast number of Roman and Greek marbles, statues, busto’s, bas reliefs, &c. part of the most noble collection of the great earl of Arundel. My lord has it in his thoughts to build a large room, or gallery, to receive this invaluable treasure; at present they are for the most part exposed to the weather in the garden. I shall cursorily name them all with the haste of a traveller, though each single piece merits a serious view, and a long description.
At the end of the side terrace in the garden, and near the house, stands an intire column of marble in two pieces, fluted, taken from among the ruins of the temple of Apollo at the isle of Delos, where many now lie: this is set upon a proper base and pedestal made purposely for it: the capital is unusual, but very beautiful, and seems perfectly to answer that description which Vitruvius gives us, IV. 1. of the origin of the Corinthian capital from the conceit of Callimachus, who was pleased with the appearance of a basket covered with a tile, and luckily set upon the middle of a root of acanthus, or brank ursin, which shot up its curled leaves around it in a delicate and tender manner: upon it stands a statue, the upper part naked. In the niches of that wall along the walk are several broken statues of goddesses, naked or in fine drapery, where the mind is divided between the pleasure of seeing what remains and the grief for what is lost. Upon the stairs that descend into the garden are a great many whole and broken statues, pieces of basso relievo, altars, urns, tombs, &c. such as the destruction of Troy, represented in the Trojan horse, the merriment of the Trojans, the slaughter of Priamus, Achilles driving his chariot with Hector tied to it: there is another bas-relief of a battle; a figure recumbent at dinner; two figures in procession, but covered over with moss; four figures, two with Phrygian bonnets; good pieces of cornice-work, with mouldings of ovolo’s, bead-moulds, &c. a tomb, the husband and wife with the son between; a piece of Bacchanalians; the end of a tomb, or vase; a mask and revelling figures; an horseman and footman engaging. Most of these antiquities seem of the highest Greek times. Before the steps upon pedestals are two Egyptian sphynges mitred, and two Muses sitting: other things thereabouts are a sea-horse in basso; a man carrying another; a capital of a pillar made of a horse’s head, with branches coming out of his mouth like them at Persepolis, a dog’s head on one angle, and lions on the other: upon it are busts and heads: over that is a portal of a monumental stone, with a woman and two children, the tomb of some player, with fine bassos of masks, the busto of the deceased; four Genii; two lions devouring horses, finely cut: over it a priestess by the side of a temple: eight round altars or pedestals adorned with bulls heads, festoons, &c. which stand upon the piers of the stairs: upon and about them are other antiquities, such as the bottom part of Scylla; three monsters like dogs devouring three men; a receiver for an urn. Cupid asleep lies upon this.
On the north side the front of the house, a tomb; another capital of a horse’s head, &c. over it a basso of Venus riding on a sea-horse, a Cupid driving; a lion over it; two Cupids, alto relievo: some busts over the windows; a young Nero, Faunus, &c.
At the south end of the house, on the ground, an old headless statue; upon the basement, a tomb of a boy wrought in channel-work, his busto in basso upon it: over the windows a small statue; a woman with a child in her arms; a tomb; another capital from the temple of Apollo at Delos; a Greek mask.