It was left by Anthony, who died unmarried, to his brother Francis, afterwards Viscount St. Alban's. Among the other scientific studies of that illustrious philosopher, architecture was one; and, soon after he became possessed of Gorhambury, he amused his leisure hours by some visionary plans for restoring the ancient city of Verulam; but it does not appear that he proceeded further in that scheme than as a speculation, and subject of conversation for the amusement of his friends. His attention was more urgently required for the repair of Gorhambury, which had fallen into considerable decay since the death of his father. Of his works there an interesting account is given by Aubrey, who visited Gorhambury in 1656, but who appears to have assigned indiscriminately every feature to the son, forgetting that his father Sir Nicholas had been the original builder and adorner of the place: "In the Portico, which fronts the south, to every arch, and as big as the arch, are drawn by an excellent hand (but the mischief of it is, in water-colours,) curious pictures, all emblematical, with mottos under each: for example, one I remember, as a ship tossed in a storm, the motto, ALTER ERIT TUM TIPHYS. "Over this Portico is a stately Gallery, whose glass windows are all painted, and every pane with several figures of beasts, birds, or flowers:† perhaps his Lordship might use them as topics for local memory. The windows look into the garden; the side opposite to them no window, but is hung all with pictures at length, as of King James, his Lordship, and several illustrious persons of his time. At the end you enter is no window; but there is a very large picture. In the middle on a rock in the sea stands King James in armour, with his regal orna Miss Grimston has included in her volume a copy of Bacon's Essay on Building, as he is supposed in it to have partly given a description of his own house at Gorhambury accompanying it, however, with the remark, that the resemblance is very trifling, the House in the Essay being of larger and loftier dimensions. + Miss Grimston gives drawings of the painted glass. i. e. Viscount St. Alban's. Aubrey refers all the ornaments to his taste: and he certainly appears to have added materially to those of the original building. ments; on his right hand stands (but whether or no on a rock I have forgot) King Henry 4th of France, in armour; and on his left hand the King of Spain in like manner. These figures are (at least) as big as the life: they were done only with umber and shell gold, and the shadowed umber as in the figures of the Gods on the doors of Verulam House [which is noticed hereafter]. The roof of this Gallery is semi-cylindrical, and painted by the same hand. In the Hall is a large story very well painted of the Feasts of Gods; where Mars is caught in a net by Vulcan. On the wall, over the chimney, is painted an oak, with acorns falling from it: the motto NISI QVID POTIVS. And on the wall over the table is painted Ceres teaching the sowing of corn, the motto MONITI MELIORA. "The Garden is large, which was (no doubt) rarely planted and kept in his Lordship's time. Here is a handsome door which opens into Oak Wood: over the door in golden letters on blue six verses. The oaks of this wood are very great and shady. His Lordship much delighted himself here:* under every tree he planted some fine flower, some whereof are there still, viz. pæonies, tulips. From this wood a door opens into a place as big as an ordinary park, the west part whereof is coppice wood; where are walks cut out as straight as a line, and broad enough for a coach, a quarter of a mile long or better. Here his Lordship much meditated, his servant Mr. Bushell down his present notions. attending him with his pen and ink, to set "The east of this park, which extends to Verulam House, was in his Lordship's prosperity a paradise, now a large ploughed field. It consisted of several parts; some thickets of plum trees. with delicate walks, some raspberries. Here was all manner of fruit trees that would grow in England, and a great number of choice forest trees, as the whitti† tree, sorbe, cervice, &c. The walks, both in the coppices and other boscages, were most ingeniously designed. At several good views were erected elegant summer-houses, well built of Roman architecture, well wainscoted and ceiled, yet standing, but defaced." *In his pecuniary distress, Lord St. Alban's sold all the property attached to Gorhambury except the Park and Manor, saying (with a figure adopted from his favourite trees,) he would top the branches to save the trunk." But when it was suggested to him to sell the Oak Wood itself, he replied that he would not part with his feathers. West. † Withy? mountain ash "Verulam House" was a summer residence which Lord Bacon was induced to erect near the Fishponds, at the north-eastern extremity of the park, on account of the deficiency of water at Gorhambury, saying that, "If the water could not be brought to the house, he would bring the house to the water." It no longer exists, but the description which Aubrey has preserved of it will be found very curious and interesting: "It was the most ingeniously contrived little Pile that ever I saw. (I am sorry that I measured not the front and breadth; but I little suspected it would be pulled down for the sake of the materials.) No question but his Lordship was the chiefest architect; but he had for his assistant a favourite of his (a St. Alban's man) Mr. Dobson, who was his Lordship's right hand, a very ingenious person (Master of the Alienation Office), but he spending his estate luxuriously, necessity forced his son William Dobson to be the most excellent Painter that England hath yet bred. * "This house did not cost less than nine or ten thousand the building. There were good chimney-pieces; the rooms very loftie, and were very well wainscoted. There were two bathing-rooms or stuffes, whither his Lordship retired of afternoons as he saw cause. The tunnells of the chimneys were carried into the Imiddle of the house, and round about them were seats. The top of the house was well leaded. From the leads was a lovely prospect to the Ponds, which were opposite to the north-east side of the house, and were on the other side of the stately walke of trees that leads to Gorhambury House, and also over that long walke of trees whose topps afford a most pleasant variegated verdure resembling the works in Irish stitch. The Kitchen, Larder, Cellar, &c. are under ground. In the middle of this house was a delicate staire-case of wood, which was curiously carved, and on the posts of every interstice was some prettie figure, as of a grave divine with his book and spectacles, a mendicant friar, &c. not one thing twice. Mem. On the the doors of the upper storie on the outside (which were painted dark umber) were figures of the gods of the Gentiles, viz. on the south dore 2d storie was Apollo, on another Jupiter with his thunder-bolt, and bigger than the life, and done by an excellent hand; the heightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shown on them made a glorious shew. Mem. * i. e. stoves. The upper part of the uppermost door on the east side had inserted into it a large looking-glass, with which the stranger was very gratefully deceived: for, after he had been entertained a pretty while with the prospects of the Ponds, Walkes, and country which the dore faced, when you were about to return into the room, one would have sworn primo intuitu that he had beheld another prospect through the house, for as soon as the stranger was landed on the balconie the concierge that shewed the house would shut the doore to putt this fallacy on him with the lookingglasse. "This was his Lordship's summer house; for he says, one should have seats for Summer and Winter, as well as cloathes. "From hence to Gorhambury is about a little mile, the way easily ascending, hardly so acclive as a desk. From hence to Gorhambury in a straite line lead three parallel walkes: in the middlemost three coaches may passe abreast; in the wing walkes two. They consist of severall stately trees of the like growth and height: viz. elme, chesnut, beach, hornebeame, Spanish ash, cervice-tree, &c. whose topps doe afforde from the walke on the house the finest shew that I have seen, and I saw it about Michaelmas, at which time of the yeare the colours of leaves are most varied. "The figures of the Ponds were thus [here probably was a plan in the MS.] They were pitched at the bottoms with pebbles of severall colours, which were workt into severall figures, as of fishes, &c. which in his Lordship's time were plainely to be seen through the cleare water, now overgrown with flagges and rushes. If a poor bodie had brought his Lordship halfe a dozen pebbles of a curious colour, he would give them a shilling, so curious was he in perfecting his Fishponds, which I guess doe contain In the middle of the middlemost pond, in the Island, is a curious Banquetting-house of Roman architecture, paved with black and white marble, covered with Cornish slate, and neatly wainscoted." four acres. Gorhambury was left by Lord Bacon to his faithful friend Sir Thomas Meautys, who had married Anne, the daughter and heiress of his half-brother Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Culford, Suffolk. The same lady was married secondly to Sir Harbottle Grimston, and thus Gorhambury came into the possession of the family which now enjoys the title of Earl of Verulam The old house continued to be occu pied until about sixty years ago, when Offa. Mr. Post has so fairly and the present mansion was built on a judiciously investigated and comnew site from the designs of Sir Ro-mented on this point, as to clearly bert Taylor; and a view of it as it shew it to be untrue, as I always appeared shortly before it was relin- thought. quished will be found in Pennant's Tour from London to Chester, pl. x. and in Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. MR. URBAN, Dec. 6. IT is natural I should feel an interest in any thing that is said about the site of Anderida; but, as I have already occupied and have been the occasion of occupying some portion of your columns upon that subject, I am unwilling to trespass further upon them. However, I feel constrained to make one or two remarks, which I shall do very briefly, upon the observations of the Rev. Beale Post, contained in your last Magazine, on the site of the station in question. As Mr. Post does not allude to the opinion of its having been at Arundel, I conclude he has not seen the little essay which has been published on the subject. His observations are, generally, of a negative character; that is, tending to shew that Anderida was not at Newenden: and, in doing this, he has well investigated those authorities which have been made use of (but untruly stated or interpreted and distorted) to bolster up Camden's opinion that this station was there a conclusion that I have for many years been opposed to. I feel something like indignation when an author conveys a mere opinion in language that induces one to consider it a fact: thus Camden, in speaking of Newenden, says, that "under Edward the First a town sprung up, and, with respect to the more ancient one, began to be called Newenden." So far from this being the case, Newenden was the name of the place at the time of Domesday Book, namely, two centuries earlier. Harris and Hasted say, or one of them says, that Newenden was given by the name of Andred to the monks or Archbishop of Canterbury, by King See Gent. Mag. for April, May, and June, 1843, and April 1844. + Fragmenta Antiquitatis, No. 1. Hughes, St. Martin's le Grand, 1843, I differ with Mr. Post's explanation of Richard of Cirencester's 15th Iter, as far as respects the distance from "Anderida Portu" "Ad Lemanum," which he says is 25 miles; and in the commentary upon Richard's Itinerary it certainly would appear so; but, if we turn to the Itinerary as given by him, there evidently appears a blank between those two places; so that the 25 miles Ad Lemanum was from some other point many miles, I say, to the east of Anderida. As this Iter is generally otherwise correct, in my opinion, I am strongly induced to believe, as I have before stated in another place, that it proceeded by sea from Portus Anderide to some place within 25 miles of Lemanus, wherever that was. Mr. Post does not seem to contradistinguish the Anderida Portus" of the 15th Iter from the "Anderida" of Richard's, Lib. 1, cap. 6, and of his 17th Iter. They were not one and the same place, as I have explained in my communication in your Magazine of May, 1843. This distinction has not been observed, that I am aware of, by any of our Antiquaries. Upon the whole, I am much pleased with Mr. Post's observations, as they lead me to place Anderida at Arundel with redoubled confidence. Sept. 9. I HAVE lately seen an engraving in the possession of the Vicar of Marcham, in this county, which affords a curious instance of the use of the collar of SS. It is an engraving by George Vertue, of a portrait, by Raphael, of Baltazar Castiglione, Count of Castiglione, the author of the famous treatise, entitled, Il Cortigiano. The portrait itself is not remarkable, but at the foot of it there are the arms of the Castiglione family surmounted by a foreign coronet, and surrounded by a collar of SS. from which is suspended a rose between two portcullises. The question arises, How can we account for the use of that ornament in this particular instance? In the Heralds' Visitation of Berks in 1623, is the following account of the Castilion family. "This antient and illustrious Italian family settled in Berkshire, in consequence of a grant from Queen Elizabeth, in 1565, to John Baptist de Castilion, of the honour of Speen and Benham, as a reward for his sufferings in her cause before she came to the Crown. She likewise granted to him the Canton ermine, as an augmentation of the antient arms, (Gules, a castle argent, on the top of a demilion rampant.)" I am informed that there is a small 4to. vol. in the possession of the Rev. H. Randolph, Rector of Letcombe Basset, entitled, Elogi di alcuni Personaggi della famiglia Castiglione, printed at Mantua 1606. This copy has the autograph of Sir Francis Castilion, to whom it was sent over in 1610 by his cousin Count Baltazar Castiglione. These data shew the connection ex isting between the Italian family of Castiglione and the Berkshire Castilions, which affords ground for a conjecture tending to explain the use of the collar of SS. round the arms of Count Baltazar. If the arms were those of the English branch, the difficulty would be diminished; but the absence of the Canton ermine, and the use of the coronet, shew that the coat belongs to the Italian house. We must resort to some other explanation. It is not improbable that the eminent Italian, Baltazar Castiglione, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and that for this reason Vertue represented his arms surrounded with the English Collar of Knighthood. I attribute this ornament to Vertue and not to Raphael, because I believe there is no instance of the latter artist painting a portrait with a coat of arms and accessories such as are to be seen in the engraving. It is also possible, that Vertue added the collar of SS. to the Italian coat out of compliment to the knightly house of Castilion of Benham. But, however this may be, it is clear that the collar can in this instance have been used only as a badge of knighthood. Ashmole, in his (Letter continued from Nov. p. 496.) MR. URBAN, AS my remarks in your November number on the Canterbury meeting of the British Archæological Association * were cut short in a manner which I did not contemplate, (but which I can readily imagine was occasioned by the lateness of the period at which I addressed you,) allow me to repeat that the remarks which I have still to make are actuated by the sincerest wishes for the prosperity of the institution ; and, though they may appear less favourable than those which you have done me the honour already to publish, and consequently may be less acceptable to some readers, yet they are not offered with a less cordial desire for the advancement of the main purposes proposed by the Association. In the first place, then, in the event of another meeting, (and I am informed that it is now determined that the meeting of 1845 shall be at Winchester,) I would suggest that the Sections should be real, and not no He *Allow me one more remark on the strictures of the Athenæum, in a point which especially proves either the unfairness or the ignorance of the writer. has chosen to print the title of the association thus-the "British Archæological Association," as if it had been formed for exclusive attention to British Archæology. Surely the blindness was wilful that did not choose to see that the distinctive epithet is the second; and that, if Italic letters must be used, it is "The British Archæological Association," so named for the same reason as that for which it was formed, namely, because the "British Association" had not, like the continental associations for the promotion of science, any Archæological Section. minal. I need not explain my meaning further than to say it is, that the example of the British Association should be more closely imitated and followed out. At Canterbury the Committees of Sections varied, but in other respects the assemblings consisted of the Association at large. They were all held in one room, and consequently each Section was subject to the arrangements of the rest. The result was that time did not suffice for the introduction of all the papers that were offered. Larger powers should be entrusted to the officers of Sections. Having their distinct places of meeting, they should be able to adjourn, and meet again, as the subjects offered for their consideration might require. Above all, their Secretaries should not only have the power, but should be required, by themselves or deputies (if unavoidably absent), to convene their Committees to preliminary meetings, and not deem it sufficient that such meeting, and only one such meeting, should take place a bare half-hour before the opening of the Section, or even (as in one instance it happened at Canterbury,) to supersede such meeting altogether by keeping the papers communicated in a private portfolio until the time for the Section has arrived. In such case the province of the Sectional Committee is usurped by the Secretary. On the distribution of the Sections into Primeval, Medieval, Historical, and Architectural, I do not hestitate to say that I think it might be much improved. Notwithstanding Archdeacon Burney's definition of "Medieval," it cannot be other than an arbitrary distinction, and, together with "Primeval," will remain ambiguous. To the Historical and Architectural Sections, themselves unexceptionable, might be added others on definite branches of research, and if they met at the same time, but at different places, they would neither jostle one another, nor yet, if their own streams ran dry, prevent their attendants from joining a Section more busily employed. Above all, preliminary announcements of what is proposed to be done, made by affixing notices to the doors of the Meeting-rooms, will at once enable those who attend to ar range the disposal of their time to their personal satisfaction, will prepare them for the subjects intended for discussion, and will further the object of mutual co-operation. There is another matter which does not appear to have yet received the attention which was its due, though it affects not merely those who are personally interested in the annual meeting, but the still larger body of the Association who are unable to attend. It appears that this year no provision was made for the publication of the essays and communications produced at Canterbury, and the consequence is, that the Association has lost that record which would have been the most permanent testimony of its value and utility. The third Number of the Archæological Journal contains a very summary Report of the Meeting, in some respects less perfect than that given in your own pages, Mr. Urban, and not attempting, in various cases, anything like an abstract of the papers produced. In the mean time, the Essays themselves have been dispersed to various other vehicles of publication, or withdrawn altogether. Some of them it seems have been handed over to the Society of Antiquaries,* and will be preserved in the Archæologia, having first contributed to the evening readings of that body-a circumstance which ought to excite the "Fellows," with a becoming pride, to at least a correspondent supply of original papers. Mr. C. R. Smith has published one essay in his "Collectanea Antiqua, a work of limited circulation; whilst a provincial bookseller (Mr. Dunkin, of Dartford,) has under * If these bodies are to work in concert, it is to be regretted that the Association should have given a place in the third Part of their Journal to Mr. Dyke's paper on the Preceptory at Garway in Herefordshire, inasmuch as it anticipates Mr. Webb's memoir on the same subject, which was presented to the Society at an earlier date (May 23, Gent. Mag. June, p. 635), but cannot appear in the Archæologia until next St. George's day, when it will probably be found to supersede both in substance and in illustrations the article and engravings adopted by the Association. On the place of Cæsar's Landing in Britain, by the Rev. Beale Post. |