Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present Part 23

"Great Eliza's golden time."

The staircase is of surprising solidity: its width is about six feet; it is divided by six landings, with four stairs between each, and each stair or step consists of a solid oak sill. The first floor contains two chambers, one hung with tapestry in fine preservation, and the chimney opening has a flattened arch. The height of the first floor and bas.e.m.e.nt has been sacrificed to the story above, which entirely consists of a large room, or hall, entered from the staircase by a low, wide doorway.

The dimensions of the hall we take to be twenty-four feet wide, and forty-two feet high; its height reaches to the open roof, the tiles of which are merely hidden by rough plaster; and the sides of the room consist of ma.s.sive timbers, filled in with plaster, and originally lit with four windows. The roof-tree, we should add, is supported by timbers which spring into two pointed arches, and render it probable that the original roof was of a different form as well as material from the present one. In this apartment were held the manorial courts; and on the plain plaster walls hung three large-sized whole length portraits of one of the Boothbys (lords of the manor), in infancy, accompanied by his brother, in boyhood, and in manhood. The timbers of the staircase sides and roof are ma.s.sive, and spring into arched frames; and all the doorways in the building have flattened arches.

Tradition reports the Lodge to have been a favourite hunting-seat of Queen Elizabeth. It was occupied, at the time of our visit, by the bailiff of the manor, who had lived there twenty years, and his father occupied the Lodge half a century before him. To the tradition was added, that Elizabeth was accustomed to ride upstairs on horseback, and alight at the door of the large room, upon a raised place, which is to this day called _the horse-block_. We confess the story savours of the marvellous; but the width and solidity, and many landings of the staircase, are in its favour; and, not many years previously, a wager of ten pounds was won by a sporting gentleman riding an untrained pony up the a.s.signed route of the chivalrous Queen.

There are circ.u.mstances related which render it more than probable that the Lodge was fitted up for the reception of Elizabeth. That the Queen was extremely fond of the chase, and hunted at an advanced age, is a well-established fact. That she hunted in Epping Forest is nearly ascertained; for the Earl of Leicester once owned Nakedhall Hawke, or old Wansted House, in the neighbourhood: it is mentioned in a doc.u.ment of Richard II., and seems to have been the manorial residence. Here, in May 1578, Leicester entertained Queen Elizabeth four or five days, and one of the rooms in the mansion was called _the Queen's_. Again, in this mansion was solemnized Leicester's marriage with the Countess of Ess.e.x, Sept. 20, 1578, the Queen being then on a visit to Mr. Stonard, at Loughton, in the Forest; and old Wansted House is introduced in the background of a picture of Queen Elizabeth, in the collection at Welbeck.

Of the Queen's _hunting the hart_ in Enfield Chase we have this circ.u.mstantial record. Twelve ladies in white satin attended her on their ambling palfreys, and twenty yeomen clad in green. At the entrance to the forest she was met by fifty archers in scarlet boots and yellow caps, armed with gilded bows; one of whom presented to her a silver-headed arrow winged with peac.o.c.k's feathers. The splendid show concluded, according to the established laws of the chase, by the offering of the knife to the Princess, as first lady on the field; and her _taking say_ of the buck with her own fair and royal hand.

In addition to the Hunting Lodge, we found other memorials of the age of Elizabeth in the neighbourhood. Thus, the hill, or point, when we left the main road to cross the Forest to the Lodge, is to this day remembered as Buckhurst-hill, as may be reasonably supposed, from Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, the accomplished poet, and favoured flower of Elizabeth's court.

In conclusion, the Londoners have lost the Epping Hunt, and the "Common Hunt" no longer goes out; and the old Pumpmaker's Fair, which originated in a wayzgoose of beans and bacon, is no longer held around the oak of Fairlop; but let us not lose the Forest itself; else, of what service is our railway gain?

FOOTNOTES:

[85] The _Builder_.

[86] Brindswood, an estate in this parish, was formerly held under the following curious tenure:--"Upon every alienation, the owner of the estate, with his wife, man, and maid-servant, each single, on a horse, comes to the parsonage, where he does his homage, and pays his relief in the following manner:--He blows three blasts with his horn, and carries a hawk upon his fist; his servant has a greyhound in a slip, both for the use of the Rector that day; he receives a chicken for his hawk, a peck of oats for his horse, and a loaf of bread for his greyhound; they all dine, after which the master blows three blasts with his horn, and they all depart."

APPENDIX.

ANCIENT BRITISH DWELLINGS.

(_Pages_ 1-7.)

We have, says Sir Richard Colt h.o.a.re, in his _Ancient Wilts.h.i.+re_, "undoubted proof from history, and from existing remains, that the earliest habitations were pits, or slight excavations in the ground, covered and protected from the inclemency of the weather by boughs of trees or sods of turf." These dwellings usually formed villages, conveniently situated near streams or rivers, the habitations of the lords of the soil before the Roman occupation. Amongst the moorlands and wilds of Yorks.h.i.+re, in spots where the spade and plough have not been in operation, upwards of forty British villages were described and inspected by Dr. Young, of Whitby. Many early dwellings are likewise to be met with in other parts of England; some sunk in the chalk, where cultivation has not entirely obliterated them, which is the case in the eastern counties. The large tumuli and barrows which remain, pertain to a much later era of our history; generally to the Roman and Saxon periods, when the use of bronze and iron became known.[87]

At a recent meeting of the Norwich Archaeological Society, the members made an excursion to Brandon and neighbourhood, and at Grime's Graves Mr. Manning read a paper on the Graves, in which he maintained that this irregularly-shaped cl.u.s.ter of holes are ancient British dwellings, forming the remains of an ancient town. Each hole was lined with a layer of stones, and, when inhabited, roofed over with boughs or gra.s.s. The term "graves" means pits or holes, and the name "Grime's" was probably derived from "Graeme," the Saxon for witch, or rather for anything supernatural. Thus the term "Grime's Graves" meant "Witches' Work."

After leaving Grime's Graves, the party examined the Devil's d.y.k.e, a long and extensive fosse and bank, supposed to have been made by the Ancient Britons for military purposes.

THE SAXON HALL.

(_Page_ 48.)

The Saxon Hall for feeding retainers was mostly built of wood and thatched with reeds, or roofed with wooden s.h.i.+ngles. The fire was kindled in the centre, and the lord and "hearth-men" sat by while the meal was cooked.

ABURY AND STONEHENGE.

(_Page_ 112.)

The late Mr. Rickman, the antiquary, was of opinion that Abury and Stonehenge cannot reasonably be carried back to a period antecedent to the Christian era. In an Essay communicated by him to the Society of Antiquaries in 1839, after tracing the Roman road from Dover and Canterbury, through Noviomagus and London, to the West of England, Mr.

Rickman notices that Silbury is situated immediately upon that road; and that the avenues of Abury extend up to it, whilst their course is referable to the radius of a Roman mile. From these and other circ.u.mstances, he argues that Abury and Silbury are not anterior to the road, nor can we well conceive how such gigantic works could be accomplished until Roman civilization had furnished such a system of providing and storing food as could supply a vast mult.i.tude of people.

Mr. Rickman further remarks, that the temple of Abury is completely in the form of a Roman amphitheatre, which would accommodate about 48,000 Roman spectators, or half the number contained in the Colosseum at Rome.

Again, the stones of Stonehenge have exhibited, when their tenons and mortices have been first exposed, the working of a well-directed steel point, beyond the workmans.h.i.+p of barbarous nations. Stonehenge is not mentioned by Caesar or Ptolemy, and its historical records commence in the fifth century. On the whole, Mr. Rickman is induced to conclude that the era of Abury is the third century, and that of Stonehenge the fourth, or before the departure of the Romans from Britain; and that both are examples of the general practice of the Roman conquerors to tolerate the wors.h.i.+p of their subjugated provinces, at the same time a.s.sociating them with their own superst.i.tions and favourite public games.

FOOTNOTES:

[87] Mr. Whincopp; _Journal of the British Archaeological a.s.sociation_, 1866.