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instead of public employments, he would probably have stood in a foremost rank. Charles, the sixth earl"Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muse's pride❞—

owes more to the lavish praises of the poets who had experienced his generosity than to his own verses: yet they are always lively and agreeable, and they aimed at being nothing more. His liberality to literary men was indeed profuse, and he appears to have bestowed his bounty with a frankness that was very agreeable to the recipients. Dorset not only patronized the poets of his day, but he delighted to have them share his social hours. A very good story (if true) is told in connection with one of Dryden's visits to Knole. During an interval in the conversation, when the wine failed to loose the tongue, it was proposed that the company should try which could write the best impromptu, and the poet was appointed judge. While the others applied themselves with due gravity to their task, Dorset merely scrawled a few words carelessly on his paper, and handed it to Dryden. When the other papers were collected, Dryden said he thought it would be useless to read them, as he supposed no one would doubt, when he heard it read, that the earl's was best.

It ran thus: "I promise to pay Mr. John Dryden, on demand, the sum of £500. Dorset."

Among the portraits in this room is that of "Glorious John," by Kneller. Dorset himself, by the same artist, is also here: as are portraits by him of Newton, Locke, and Hobbes. Several of the most interesting of Sir Joshua Reynolds' portraits are in this room, including himself, Goldsmith, Garrick, Burke, and Johnson-all excellent and characteristic, but the last savouring a little too strongly of those peculiarities which tempted the doctor to complain that his friend had made him look like "Blinking Sam :" "It is not friendly, Sir," he growled, "to hand down to posterity the imperfections of any man." This is a duplicate o the Duke of Sutherland's picture. One or two of the portraits are attributed to Vandyke. Waller, Addison, and some others, are by Pope's 'Jarvis.' Among the minor pictures is a portrait of Tom Durfey, and a "Conversation piece," by Vandergucht, representing Durfey, the artist, and some of the household at Knole, carousing. Tom Durfey deserves a place here among his betters. In his lifetime he had an apartment allotted to him at Knole, and he rendered his company very agreeable to the earl and his friends by his con

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vivial talents. Poor Tom was one of the sprightliest | the house: where to find it they are not told. the broken ground along the outskirts of the park you get the first glimpse of the Hall, which from this distance looks very well (Cut No. 7). The road from Brewer's Gate leads by a magnificent cedar, on passing which you find yourself close to the mansion.

of the small wits of his day, and he has contrived to irradiate the very worst of his occasional pieces with some scintillations of his unfailing liveliness; and some of his songs are a good deal above the average standard of song merit. He was not forgetful of Knole, or its master he has praised his patron with as good heart as any of his flatterers; and he has commemorated his stay at the house by a song on "the incomparable "Such beer," he says, strong beer at Knole."

all wine must control:"

"Such beer, fine as Burgundy, lifts high my soul

When bumpers are filled for the glory of Knole." He merited a place in Knole's Gallery of Poets.

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Knole park is on a higher site, more varied in surface, and even more beautiful than Penshurst. It is very extensive, abundantly stocked with deer, and richly wooded. The beeches are perhaps hardly elsewhere to be equalled for number, size, health, and beauty. One near, what is called the Duchess's Walk, is very remarkable: the trunk is of prodigious girth, and ascends to a great altitude; whilst the branches overshadow a vast space. It is quite sound and flourishing, in every respect the finest beech we remember to have seen. Not far from it is a very large oak, said by Mr. Brady to have been known two centuries ago as 'The Old Oak:' the trunk, which is now a mere shell, is thirty feet in circumference. The stranger should, if he have time, stroll awhile about the park-the paths across it are freely open. At any rate he should endeavour to reach the end of the noble avenue, which leads to the high-ground at the south western extremity of the park, for the sake of one of the finest prospects in Kent-a county famous for its splendid scenery. We wish him a fair day for the view. This is a very imperfect sketch of Knole, but we have the less compunction in offering it because, if we have succeeded in indicating its character, the visitor can easily fill up the details, by providing himself with the excellent Guide to Knole, by J. H. Brady, F.S.A." We may just mention while here, that Mote House, at Ightham, about five miles from Knole, is another specimen of a moated manor-house of a date not later than that at Hever. It has never been so important a building as Hever Castle, but it is well worth seeing. The hall and chapel are remarkably fine.

COBHAM HALL.

Cobham Hall is about four miles south-east of Gravesend. Very beautiful is the approach to it; and especially refreshing after newly escaping from the smoke of London, and Gravesend's dusty highways. Outside the limits of the park, proper, is a woody tract which has gained wondrous beauty from a few years' judicious neglect. The road lies through this wood, under a thick canopy of luxuriant foliage-affording a delicious stroll on a fine autumnal day. When you reach the end of the wood, it will be well to ask,-if you can see anybody to ask,-for Brewer's Gate, that being the gate strangers are directed to pass through when they visit

The building is different in date, arrangement, and appearance from those we have yet visited. Though the later parts of both Penshurst and Knole are almost without defensive appliances, it is not so with the earlier portions. Cobham is entirely domestic in character: even the entrances are without battlements. They too are built of stone, Cobham of brick. The main building consists of two extensive wings, with lofty octagonal turrets in the middle and at the extremities. These wings bear on them their respective dates of erection, 1582 and 1594. They are united by a central building, designed by Inigo Jones; the ground plan of the edifice being thus in the form of a capital H. As a whole it is both striking and picturesque. The arrangement allows of bold masses of light and shadow; while the numerous turrets, the many stacks of variously-carved chimney-shafts, the quaint gables, and handsome bay windows, produce great richness of effect, and a very pleasing play of outline.

But before we enter, we must just recal the names of a few of the owners of Cobham. From the first year of the reign of John till the ninth of Henry IV. it belonged to a series of male descendants of a Norman knight, hight Cobham. It then passed to a lady, who transferred the manor in succession to five husbands, all of whom she outlived. Her fourth husband was the celebrated Lollard martyr, Sir John Oldcastle, who assumed the title of Lord Cobham on his marriage with her. This formidable lady left a daughter, whose descendants retained the estate till the reign of James I., when it was forfeited to the crown by the last of them, the wretched Lord Cobham, whose evidence condemned Raleigh. He saved his life by his cowardly compliance with the king's desire, but he saved nothing else. Cobham was left to drag on a degraded existence in the deepest poverty; fain, if we may trust a contemporary, to beg scraps from a trencher-scraper to save himself from starving, while the king gave the estate to his kinsman Darnley, Earl of Lennox. The Earl of Darnley, the present owner of Cobham, is the descendant of a gentleman named Bligh, who in 1714 married the heiress of the Lennoxes.

The rooms which are shown at Cobham have little of the air of antiquity which was so attractive in those we have hitherto visited. In the early part of the present century the whole house underwent a Wyatvillian improvement; when, as far as the interior is concerned, almost all the original character was improved away. The rooms were, however, rendered more convenient, and more consonant to modern habits; many of them are very elegant apartments, and they are furnished with considerable splendour. The diningroom, into which the visitor is first led, will give him a favourable impression of modern style; it is chastely

fitted up, by which the effect of the pictures is con- | far short of the power displayed in the other. Several siderably enhanced. The next, the music-room, is the small but very spirited oil sketches by him should also most magnificent in the house, and indeed is said to be examined. The Guidos, of which there are several, have been pronounced by George IV, 'the finest room are generally considered among the choicest paintings in England'-a decision we take leave to demur to. in the collection: the Herodias with John the Baptist's This is one of the apartments erected by Inigo Jones, Head is the best. By Titian there are two or three, who had ever a good eye for picturesque effect. It is hung where it is not easy to judge of their merit. The large and lofty, and well proportioned; the walls are to two historical pictures by Salvator Rosa, which the some height of polished white marble, with pilasters of connoisseurs admire so much, appear to us very unsienna marble; the walls above, and the roof, have bold interesting. The only English paintings that we rerelievo ornaments, richly gilt, off a ground of dead member are some two or three, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; white. The fire-place has a very high chimney-piece one is a repetition of the 'Samuel,' differing a good deal of white marble, of elaborate sculpture, the work of from that we saw at Knole; another is a female head, Sir R. Westmacott, R.A. The floor is of polished very gracefully painted. There are a few small paintoak; at one end of the room is a music gallery, in the ings that deserve examination; and a few portraits. centre of which is an organ-a present, we believe, from The park extends over an area of some 1,800 acres ; George IV. The chairs, ottomans, &c., are of the well diversified with hill and valley, and broad smooth richest description, and like all else profusely gilt. All glades, and bosky dells, Some parts of it afford the this gilding and marble undoubtedly produces a very most beautiful little closed-up spots of woody scenery rich effect; and most likely, when the room is brilliantly that can be desired; others afford wide and noble prolighted and filled with fair ladies and well-dressed men spects. The park contains many very large trees; the the splendour is very much increased. But we confess chestnuts being especially famous. One, known as the to thinking it too fine, at least for daylight. Four Sisters, is some five-and-twenty feet in girth.

But after all, the pictures are what are most worth seeing at Cobham. In this music-hall there is a very fine full-length, by Vandyke, of the two sons of the Earl of Lennox, who were killed when fighting for Charles I. against the Parliament. In the dining-room are several other of Vandyke's portraits; they are not among the finest of his works, but they possess much of the quiet grace and dignity which so emphatically distinguish him; the best, perhaps, is that of the second Duke of Lennox. There are also in this room portraits by Lely and Kneller worth looking at, though hardly worth describing. There is elsewhere a roomfull of portraits, of which this mention may suffice. On the staircase are several large paintings; one of which, a Stag Hunt, by Snyders, full of life and fire, deserves to be hung where it could be better seen.

The chief and most valuable paintings are assembled in the Picture Gallery. It is a fine collection, spoiled by the arrangement. One would fancy that some upholsterer had been commissioned to arrange them, as he would the tables or the curtains in a room. The only principle followed seems to have been that of hanging them as though they were mere furniture, and were to be placed where the frames would produce the best effect. Some of the choicest pictures are in the worst positions, and almost all are put beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. There is one exception, however: Rubens' grand picture, The Head of Cyrus brought to Queen Tomyris,' which hangs at the farthest end of the gallery, catches the eye as you enter, and is so brilliant as almost to illumine the room. It is one of his most glowing pieces of colour; indeed, the power and harmony of the colouring more than atone for the entire disregard of all propriety of costume and character. It was purchased from the Orleans collection. There is another very good painting, by Rubens, herea Boar Hunt-very animated and vigorous; but falling

The stranger must not quit Cobham without visiting the Church. In it are several very interesting monuments of the Cobhams; among them is a very fine altar tomb, with a recumbent statue of the Lord Cobham who was executed in the first year of the reign of Mary, for his participation in Wyatt's rebellion. But what the church is mainly visited for, is the series of thirteen monumental brasses of the Cobhams. Eight of them represent knights, five ladies: they vary, of course, in execution, but they are probably the finest and most perfect series of incised slabs in Great Britain.

CHARLTON HOUSE.

By way of completing the series of manor-houses, we add an engraving and short notice of Charlton House, between Greenwich and Woolwich, one of the buildings erected when the old English domestic architecture was about to be supplanted by what was then thought to be a purer style. (Cut, No. 8.)

At the accession of James I., the manor of Charlton was the property of the crown. The needy train of courtiers who followed that monarch to the rich south, were clamorous for provision, and James was nothing loth to supply the necessities of his loving countrymen. Charlton he assigned, the year after his accession, to the Earl of Mar. That nobleman sold it, in 1606, to one of his countrymen, Sir James Erskine, for £2,000. Sir James, in like manner, parted with his bargain the following year, for £4,500, to Sir Adam Newton, another of the king's northern knights. The traffic stopped there: Sir Adam kept the estate; in 1607 he commenced, and about 1612 completed, the present mansion. The present owner and occupant is Sir T. M. Wilson, Bart.

Inigo Jones is commonly said to have been the architect of Charlton House. He was at the time

architect to Prince Henry, and is very likely to have been employed by his tutor. The building is of brick, with stone quoins and dressings. In form it is an oblong, with projecting wings, and a central porch projecting somewhat less than the wings: the ground-plan being nearly that of a capital E. At each end there is a tall square turret. The style is the extremely florid one then in vogue. When first erected, its appearance must have been very different from the soberer structures of a preceding age; but time has taken off a good deal of its extravagancy, and it is now rather a pleasing, though it cannot be termed a graceful building. The chief labour is expended upon the centre, which, as was Jones's custom, is very elaborately ornamented. The arched doorway has plain double columns on each side; over it is a niche, in which is a female bust. The first story has quaintly-carved columns; and above them a series of grotesque-sculptured brackets. To this succeeds another story, and another row of similar brackets. Along the entire summit is carried a rather singular balustrade. A somewhat similar balustrade originally divided the terrace in front of the house from the garden. In the interior are some very handsome rooms. The entrance-hall is large, considerably ornamented, and has a deep central pendant hanging from the ceiling. There is also a grand saloon, which seems by its bold and profuse ornamentation to claim the parentage of Jones. Another of the more striking features is a gallery, seventy-six feet in length, very similar to that in Charlton House, Wiltshire, which is known to have been constructed by him. Indeed, the resemblance is so strong between these two houses (which

are of nearly the same date) as to leave very little doubt that they are the work of the same architect. The grand staircase is made a prominent object, and it is a very effective one in the design. In the various rooms are a good many pictures and articles of vertû; and some very showy and costly sculptured chimneypieces; but as they cannot be seen by the stranger, it is not worth while to describe them.

To the reader who may desire to visit any of these places, it will be useful to know the days on which they can be inspected; it is a surpassing annoyance to make a holiday for the purpose, and then, after a journey perhaps of thirty miles or more, to be told you have selected the wrong day, and denied admission. Hever Castle is occupied by a farmer, who readily permits it to be seen on any week-day. Penshurst can only be viewed on Monday or Saturday. Penshurst and Hever may, as we mentioned, be easily examined on the same day. The Countess Dowager of Plymouth, who owns Knole, and constantly resides in it, very handsomely permits the readiest access to the state-rooms on any week-day. Cobham can only be seen on Fridays, between the hours of eleven and four, and the visitor must be careful to provide himself beforehand with a ticket (or if there be more than one in the party, with a ticket for each), that may be obtained of Mr. Caddell, bookseller, Milton-road, Gravesend, or at the stationers at Rochester, on payment of one shilling each; no fee is allowed to be taken at the hall. The interior of Charlton House is not shown at all, the rooms being in the ordinary occupation of the family.

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