"Ic bæs ende-sæta æg-wearde héold, be on land Dena láðra nænig

mid scip-herge

sce pan ne meahte."

The neighbourhood now affords sufficient interest to the antiquary, in the old residence called Shoreland House, and in the ancient church of Minster, with its monuments and brasses.

The Elm has once been a noble tree; and it is within the range of possibility to suppose that it may itself have witnessed the age of the Saxons, and that it may have seen the grim Danish sea-king canton his warriors on this little island. Its height is probably not half of that to which it formerly rose, but the branches still spread out to a considerable extent, and are abundantly covered with foliage. The trunk is hollow, and at an elevation of three feet from the ground its circumference measures seventeen feet seven inches; so that it merits a place among the largest trees of its kind in our isle. The last famous event connected with its history, preserved in the memory of the peasantry, was the visit of four

"I therefore placed at the end of the land, have kept the ocean-watch,

that on the land of the Danes

no foe

with a naval armament

might commit injury."

aged ladies, who are said to have taken tea together in the inside.

Under this tree is held, on the Monday next after the feast of Pentecost, a court leet, at which are chosen the constable who has jurisdiction over the island, the ferry-warden, &c. and they there arrange the assessing of rates, and other matters chiefly connected with the ferry between the island and the mainland. This circumstance is in itself a proof of the antiquity of the tree; and the custom of holding courts in such situations, not uncommon in England, is no doubt a remnant of the superstitious reverence paid to such trees by our Saxon ancestors. The works of the earlier Christian monks are full of allusions to this all-prevailing superstition, and they often dwell with exultation on the ravages which in their zeal the early missionaries caused to be made amongst the finest ornaments of our primeval forests.

THIS structure, which forms the subject of the engraving in the present Magazine, is interesting as exhibiting a fine example of one of those ancient mansions which constitute a link between the castellated and domestic styles of building.

The original castle was in all probability erected by some member of the ancient family of Penchester during the time when the manor formed a part of its large possessions in the county; but as no portion of that structure is to be seen in the existing edifice, it will not be necessary to take up the history at an earlier period than the date of the oldest portion of the architecture of the present mansion.

Sometime in the reign of Edward the Third, the estate became the property of William de Hever, a member of a family which had previously existed at Northfleet, in the same county; who dying without male

W.

issue, the castle and manor devolved on his daughters and co-heiresses, Joane married to Reginald Cobham, of Sterborough in Surrey, and Margaret to Sir Oliver Brocas; from which period the manor was divided into two portions, which became nominal manors under the names of Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas.

In the succeeding century the manor of Hever Cobham was purchased of Sir Thomas Cobham by Sir Geoffrey Bullen, knight, a wealthy merchant of London, who had been Lord Mayor of that city in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Henry the Sixth; from whom it descended to Sir Thomas Bullen, the father of the ill-fated Anne. The ambition of this man, which led him to sacrifice his daughter to the passion of a brutal tyrant, was the means of transferring Hever Castle to the rapacious Henry. By this monarch it was assigned as a residence to the repudiated Anne of Cleves,

whose phlegmatic disposition perhaps saved her from the fate of her unhappy predecessor. At her death it again reverted to the Crown, and was granted by Queen Mary, on 16th of January, 1557, to Sir Edward Waldegrave, as a reward for his loyalty and attachment to his royal mistress: qualities which, on the accession of Elizabeth, procured his committal to the Tower, where he died in the third year of that arbitrary reign. In the family of Waldegrave it remained until 1715, when it was sold by James Lord Waldegrave to Sir William Humphreys, Bart. Lord Mayor of London, by which transfer it became for the second time the property of a merchant; thirty years after this period, in 1745, the mansion was again sold by the grand-daughter of Sir William Humphreys to Timothy Waldo, Esq. of Clapham, afterwards Sir Timothy Waldo, and in this family it at present remains. The existing structure, though by no means so extensive as many of the residences of ancient families, still possesses many features of grandeur and magnificence. The architecture exhibits the periods of its occupancy by the Hevers, the Bullens, and the Waldegraves; and to some members of the latter family are owing those extensive alterations, which we shall proceed to notice, and which have materially affected the original character of the edifice.

The buildings form a quadrangular pile, being, as may be inferred from the above statement of the vicissitudes of its history, the work of several periods, and constitute rather a castellated mansion than a castle in an architectural sense of the term.

The mansion together with the garden is surrounded by a moat, which is still filled with water. The entrance gateway is the most ancient portion of the structure; and, although it has in common with the rest of the building sustained alterations in the Tudor period, it still displays the character of the architecture of the reign of Edward the Third, and is the only feature of the pile which at all partakes of the character of a castle.

The entrance is formed by a low pointed arch commonly seen in castle gateways, but which is not to be confounded with the four centered

arches of the Tudor period. The form had many advantages, it more readily accommodated itself to the portcullis, and at the same time it allowed not only of the construction of a room above, but it made a smaller opening in the wall than an acutely pointed one would have done.

The roof or ceiling of this arch of entrance is ribbed with pointed arches, the intervals filled up with masonry, and has grooves for the working of the three portcullises which guarded the entrance: the two external portcullises, or rather their representatives, remain; the one in the interior has been removed.

The soffite of the arch is also pierced in the intervals between the ribs with holes, for the purposes of showering down combustibles on the assailants; and these with the machicolations at the summits, and arrow slits in different parts of the walls, show that the gateway was possessed of all the ancient means of defence and annoyance, and, when viewed in conjunction with the remainder of the structure, appear to be more than necessary for the defence of the mansion, which nowhere possesses equal degree of strength, circumstances which show plainly that this gate is the relic of an older structure.

an

The tracery seen on the face of the buttresses at the sides of the arch of entrance is of an earlier period than the occupancy of the Bullens, to whom may be assigned the quadrilateral windows seen in the remainder of the elevation of the gate-house. The residence of the Cobhams being at Sterborough Castle, in the immediate neighbourhood, it is not probable that Hever was used for that purpose from the period of the death of William de Hever until its purchase by Sir Geoffrey Bullen: it is therefore unlikely that the gateway should be erected in this interval; and as the architecture plainly bespeaks an earlier period than that in which it became the residence of the Bullens, there can be no impropriety in considering it as a part of the structure which formed the residence of the Hevers, and probably received its present appearance, if it was not wholly built, by the last possessor of that name. The remainder of the front is com

posed of two wings, flanking the gatehouse, having square towers at the angles furnished with cruciform arrow slits, also portions of the earlier pile. The windows, it will be remarked, in this wing, are occupied by mullions without the accompaniment of arched heads-a feature which is seen in most of the windows of the castle, proving that they are alterations of a period even later than the time of the Tudors, when the mullions of windows were almost universally surmounted by an arched head, including five sweeps.

The western flank of the castle shown in the engraving is terminated with the gable of what was once the hall. The back front is entire, in the same general style; it shows an octagon tower staircase, and the remains of the oriel window of the hall. The wall is surmounted by gables which originally may have constituted dormer windows to the hall. The eastern flank closely resembles the western, preserving an uniformity in the design of the structure. The whole of the external walls are built of the sandstone of the county.

The gables and chimney shafts have been altered from their original design, but not very materially; the windows have sustained the greatest injury by the removal of the small arches and the inclosed sweeps which surmounted each light. These alterations must have been made some time after the castle came into the possession of Lord Waldegrave; and, viewed in connexion with the fittings up of the interior, lead to the conclusion that a very material alteration of the structure took place about the reign of James the First.

Entering by the gate, a court yard presents itself, the dimensions of which have been considerably contracted from their original proportions by the extension of the surrounding buildings into the area: these buildings are constructed of timber and plaster; the former so disposed as to form panels. Both sides are uniform, each having a doorway and two bow windows ranging in height equal to the rest of the elevetion. On the further side of the court, a passage leads through the hall to the garden, and at the same time

affords access to the domestic apart

ments.

The hall in its present state adds nothing to the appearance of the entire structure, of which it no longer forms a separate feature. On the side towards the court it is concealed by an additional building which has been raised aginst the wall for the purpose of containing a staircase to the apartments, constructed in the upper portion. Internally, the hall is divided by a floor, the lower story forming a kitchen or servants' hall; it possesses a spacious fireplace, and a screen at the lower end covering the passage, affords a faint indication of the former grandeur of the apartment. The screen itself is not ancient; but, in common with the woodwork of the rest of the interior, is of Italian architecture, shewn in pilasters; the decorations are very sparingly applied, and are certainly not older than the age of Charles the First: the remainder of this room has nothing worthy of remark. The upper part of the hall has been formed into a long and unsightly gallery, styled the ball-room, surrounded with wainscoting, decorated with Ionic pilasters in a very plain style; the ceiling is simple plastering, concealing the old timber roof, and in consequence of its situation it takes the form of a truncated gable. On one side of the room are recesses occupying the gables spoken of on the exterior, and also a portion of the oriel window of the hall. At one of these galleries a trapdoor is lifted up and discloses a dark place, ridiculously styled the "dungeon;" it is merely a void space between the two stories into which the interior of the hall is divided.

In the way up to this gallery a room is shown as that of Anne Bullen: the wainscot frontispiece to the chimney, has Ionic terminal pilasters, and may be of the time of James I. it is certainly not earlier. A dark recess or closet at one corner, occupying the turret before described, is said to have been her study.

The bedstead and furniture shown in this room as Anne Bullen's, may possibly be coeval with Queen Anne; there is no pretence for saying they are older.

In the western range of building, at the left hand side of the quadrangle,

the upper apartments show a flat ceiling of plaster with mouldings, running into a plain geometrical pattern, very common in old houses. This may be a remnant of the long gallery; it is now divided into several apartments. The age is certainly not earlier than the date before assigned to the more modern portion of the structure.

In the windows of the staircase, leading from the hall to the upper apartments, are the following shields of arms in stained glass, the first four surrounded with the order of the Garter.* No. I. (reversed in the glazing) quarterly of 8. 1. Arg. a chevron Gu. between 3 bull's heads couped Sa. Bullen; 2. Quarterly Sa. and Arg. Hoo; 3. Az. a fesse Or, between two cotices dancettée Arg. ; 4. Azure, three martlets Argent; 5. Ermine, a chief Sable, charged with three crosses patée Argent; 6. Azure, a fret and chief Or, St. Leger; 7. Per bend wavy Sable and Argent; 8. Azure, three fleurs-delis and a chief engrailed Argent; being the shield of Sir Thomas Bullen, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond: it impales quarterly, 1. Gules, a bend between six cross-crosslets fitchée Argent, Howard; 2. Gules, 3 lions passant gardant in pale Or, a label of three points Argent, Brotherton; 3. Chequée Or and Azure, Warren; 4. Gules, a lion rampant Argent, Mowbray; being the arms of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thos. Bullen, and a daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.

No. II. quarterly of 5 coats: 1. Bullen; 2. Per fesse indented Azure and Or; 3. Hoo; 4. Argent, a lion rampant Sable; 5. Azure, a fesse between six quatrefoils Or. No. III. quarterly Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray. No. IV. repetition of No. II. No. V. defaced, probably the same as last. No. VI. a shield made up of fragments. No. VII. Per fesse indented

*They appear to be the same as the following, which are given by Hasted. -In windows of Hever Castle, these arms Arg. three buckles Gu. within the Garter; a shield of four coats, Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray, Arg. 3 buckles Gules; a shield of eight coats, viz. Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, and Ormond; and one in hall, Per pale Arg. and Gules, for Waldegrave. Hasted, vol. i. p. 395.

Azure and Or. No. VIII. quarterly, 1 and 4 Bullen, 2 and 3 Per fesse indented Azure and Or, an escutcheon of pretence, Quarterly Sa. and Argent, Hoo, Sir Geoffrey Bullen, knight, and Anne his wife, daughter of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings.* No. IX. Per pale Gules and Argent, a crescent for difference Or, for Waldegrave.

In 1831 the room which occupies the upper part of the gateway was fitted up by Mr. P. F. Robinson in the Gothic style. The wainscoting is partly ancient and partly modern; immediately above the fireplace is a fascia of ancient shields in oak, on which are carved the initial letters M-IHS, and the arms of France. Above this are two angels, each bearing two shields painted with the following armorial bearings (modern).

1. Arg. on a bend Sable 3 roses of the First, barbed Vert, seeded Or; impaling Arg. a chevron Gules, between three bull's heads Sable; a scroll below inscribed "Carey and Boleyn," for Mary, the second daughter of Sir Thomas Bullen, Earl of Wiltshire, and wife of William Carey, Esq.

2. Carey, impaling Argent, a bend Azure between six leopard's faces Gules, inscribed "Carey and Waldo."

3. Bullen impaling Howard, the bend charged with the augmentation, inscribed "Boleyn and Howard." If the artist who painted this shield had consulted the glass existing in the hall, he would have found that the alliance between the Howards and Bullens preceded the grant of augmentation to the first named family.

The fourth shield bears the Royal arms impaling Bullen, inscribed "K. Hen. VIII. and Boleyn."

The ceiling is paneled by oak ribs with gold bosses at the angles. At one end is a gallery which is decorated with a double rose, H. A. crowned, and a falcon on a mount, holding a sceptre, which badges are of modern execution.

In the room is some old furniture and a collection of portraits, of which one is shown as Anne Boleyn, but the features have an appearance of age beyond that of the unfortunate Queen.

This mansion, in common with the great majority of ancient structures, is *This coat is not coeval with the parties.