1826.] 297 from this place. West Dean, in the early part of the last century, was inhabited by Lord Ranelagh, and afterwards by the family of Elwyn, Baronets. West Dean Manor House, Willshire. Mr. URBAN, Oct. 5. I INCLOSE a view of the garden front of the ancient Manor House of West Dean, co. Wilts (see Plate I.), in the hope that it may be preserved in your valuable Miscellany, as the mansion itself, which was an interesting relic of the age in which it was built, has been lately taken down. The parish of West Dean, which lies nearly on the south-eastern extremity of the county, appears to have been held at the Conquest by Waleran the Huntsman: it afterwards formed part of the possessions of Oliver de Ingham, who inherited it from his mother Albreda, daughter of Walter Waleran, living in the year 1200. John the son of Oliver de Ingham was Lord of West Dean 10 Edw. I. which he left to his son and heir Oliver, who having been intrasted with several military commands by Edward the Second and Edward the Third, was summoned among the great Barons to Parliament, by the last mentioned monarch. He died 17 Edw. III. without male issue, when this estate fell at the partition of the property to Roger L'Estrange of Knockin, who married Joan his youngest daughter. It probably remained in this family for many years, as the male line of this branch continued till the reign of Edward the Fourth, when Johanna the daughter and heiress of Richard L'Estrange, Lord of Knockin, conveyed the family property to George, son of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, who became Lord Strange in right of his wife. About the reign of Queen Elizabeth, West Dean became the property and residence of the family of Evelyn, descended from the same ancestor as the celebrated author of the “ Sylva." Sir John Evelyn, of West Dean, left an only daughter and heiress Elizabeth, who married Robert Pierpont, son and heir of the Honourable Wm. Pierpont, 2d son of Robert Earl of Kingston, whose 3d son Evelyn, on failure of the issue of his elder brother, became Earl, and in 1715 was created Duke of Kingston. He occasionally resided at West Dean, which is mentioned (with the favourite occupations of the family there) by his celebrated daughter, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in her Letters before her marriage. It is indeed traditionally asserted that she eloped with Mr. Montagu GENT. MAG. October, 1826. Its last tenants were a society of nuns, who fled from Flanders during the Revolution; it is unpleasing to add, that they were compelled to remove from this place in consequence of the rudeness and annoyance of the workmen employed on the intended canal from Salisbury to Southampton. The property having descended to several individuals of the noble family of Moore, the house was after this period for many years uninhabited, and fell into decay; and the estate having about three years since been purchased by Mr. Baring Wall, this ancient mansion was immediately dismantled, and the materials sold. West Dean House was, according to the fashion of the times, situated very near the parish church (a small unornamented edifice, containing several nonuments of the Evelyn family,) in a grove of magnificent elms. The eastern front retained its original appearance, but the opposite side had been modernized, and was further adorned with a handsome terrace, faced with pillars, and terminated at each extremity with orangeries of elegant proportions and costly decorations. Immediately beyond were the pleasure-grounds of considerable extent, where vestiges of the successive tastes of the different proprietors were till very lately easily discovered. G. M. Idea of a Royal Residence, developed in a Letter supposed to be written from the Count de Chartres to the Count de Chabrol. (Continued from p. 225.) Hsketch of the Gardens, we must AVING thus given you a slight just glance at the long line of buildings which now really ornament the Eastern side, having lately received from their opulent proprietors a façade and piazza similar to the Rue de Rivoli, and turn to the palace itself; the lofty spire and western towers of the Chapel Royal, the towers of East and West crosses of the South front, the lanthorns of the Barons' hall and Throne room, towering above all other edifices around, immediately announces its Regality to the distant spectator; the eye is delighted with the play of light, and depth of shadow, caused by the bold projection of the pavillions, transepts, and halls, with the numerous buttresses, flying arches, turrets, and towers, belonging to each of these divisions, and on a nearer approach we find that in conformity with ancient usage it is separated on three sides from the grounds by a fosse, which is now dry, and lined with turf of such delightful verdure as in our dry climate we have no conception of. Seven antique bridges are thrown across this fosse, and give access to the building, which occupies a parallelogram of 1250 feet, by 900 feet, inclosing a court 900 feet long, and 600 feet wide; the edifice has, therefore, eight fronts, each differing from the other, which has enabled the architect to introduce almost every beauty of the style adopted, that of the. age of the third Edward. The South, or principal façade, is composed of two grand pavillions or wings, connected by the general line of front, which consists of three galleries below and one above, divided by cross galleries supported by towers, and a noble structure containing the Barons' hall and apartments surrounding it. This coinmanding portion of the edifice is developed upon a line of 144 feet, and supported by low towers, from which spring flying buttresses, which thus complete the pyramidal effect by giving additional breadth to the base; its lower division is similar to the façade of the Cathedral of Rheims, composed of nine very deeply receding and lofty proportioned arches, whose minute shafts and mouldings rise from an extensive platform raised twelve feet from the ground by steps which extend the whole length of its base; the middle arch, which is the grand entrance or door of George the Fourth, is 28 feet wide, and 44 feet high on the exterior, contracted by a series of mouldings receding to a depth of 18 feet to 14 feet wide, and 37 high. Sixteen colossal statutes of sovereigns, immediately preceding the present, standing upon pedestals beneath canopies, are to occupy the sides of this magnificent recess; four only are however yet finished. Below this line of statues are 32 medallions, presenting each in bas-relief a subject taken from the history of their reigns; the arches above are filled with small figures of celebrated men who flourished during the same period. The folding doors of carved oak are square headed, rising to a transom at the base of the arch, which is filled with a circular window lighting the Hall. This splendid aperture is double canopied, the outermost ornamented with foliage, and finishing with a crown, beneath which is a sitting figure of George the Fourth, with the sceptre and ball; lower down are figures representing Great Britain, Ireland, East and West Indies, and the numerous Colonies dependant upon these isles, holding emblems and legends, upon which are inscribed a line from the national anthem. All these figures and medallions are executed in white marble, some possessing considerable merit, and display a greater acquaintance with the essentials of the art than I before supposed this Nation to possess. The four arches on each side the entrance are of similar design, but decreasing regularly, each five feet less than the preceding, the three first contain a window not near so deeply recessed as the door, but are brought considerably more forward, and surrounded with a broad band of richly carved foliage, a copy of that which forms the chief ornament around the South transept door of St. Denis. The recesses of the first windows contain each four large statues, with the medallions and smaller statues; the next two each; and the last, which has no window, but appears an enriched niche, whose chief ornament is the one a figure of St. Edward, and the other that of William the First. Thus these magnificent recesses will present the 34 sovereigns of England, from Alfred, except Harold, the great men and most prominent events of their reign, thus offering an epitome of the history of the empire. These arches are all ornamented with triangular crocketed canopies ending with helmets, and filled up from the arch with tracery. This ground-story projecting much beyond the upper ones, finishes with an elegant pierced battlement, defending galleries, from which rise the buttresses of the superior stories and corner turrets. The four buttresses are ornamented with niches and statues, finish with octangular pinnacles at a great height above the roof, and divide these stories perpendicularly into five divisions. The middle division is filled with a beautiful circular window from the Church of St. Quen; the others with large equilateral arched windows. 1826.] Idea of a Royal Residence. The divisions are of different heights, and the third floor, which is twenty feet above each, consequently presents the same irregularity; this upper floor is lighted by small windows, and finishes with a pierced parapet and flat roof. All the windows have triangular canopies supporting a small statue, which rising above the roof, have a fine light effect. The armorial bearings of Great Britain, of colossal proportions, are placed above the whole; behind these, in the middle of the roof, is an octangular lanthorn, surmounted with the Crown of England; this is gilded, filled with glass, and lights the vestibules and hall below, is 25 feet in diameter, rises 100 feet from the roof, and from the ground 213 feet. On each side this grand pile are the Galleries of Painting and Sculpture, the Libraries and Conservatories: an idea of which may be given by the nave, ailes, and transepts of a Cathedral; the nave at the height of the ailes being arched over, forms the lower gallery, and the clerestory the upper; the whole supported by a basement story of 12 feet from the surface, lighted by equilateral arches of the same width as the windows above. The transepts contain the halls of Alfred and Henry, each having an enriched entrance and circular window of curious tracery, strengthened at the corners by octangular turrets crowned with spires, and connected by flying arches to a square tower on each side. Above the cross rises a tower of two principal divisions, the lower having four open staircase turrets, like those of Strasburg; the upper like that of St. Ouen; the top has a perforated battlement and figures of angels, whose expanded wings and joined hands alike support each other, and give an extraordinary appearance of lightness to the whole. The total height of these towers is 72 feet from the roof, and 158 from the ground. The pavillions or wings forming the angles of the edifice, extend at the base to a length of 174 feet, have heptangular corner turrets, ornamented with buttresses, and crowned with lanthorns; their Southern fronts are filled between the turrets with four large oriels or bays of three windows each. These lateral fronts have a breadth of 164 feet, are separated by buttresses into five divisions, the middle forming an oriel, the side divisions having flat windows. The basement 299 story (as around the whole fabric) is 12 feet high, the two next 24 feet each, and the upper 20 feet; above which rise the lofty gables of the roof, covering the three middle divisions, the two side ones having battlements, and forming galleries. The principal feature of the East front is St. George's Hall and the Throne-room above. Its exterior shows an elevated ornamented gable, rising above an immense window, from Merton College Chapel below is the great door of the Hall, covered with a porch, whose arches spring from the towers flanking it; these rise to half the height of the gable, finish with a parapet and pinnacles at the angles, from which arise arches supporting a light spire. Stairs which commence on each side the Hall-door on the exterior, lead through the towers into the vestibule above the porch to the Throne-room; this is connected to the wings by a long line of buildings of four floors, covered with a high pitched roof, having lofty and floridly ornamented dormer windows, and contains the state apartments belonging to the Throne-room, the Gallery of Costumes, &c. In the middle of the Western front we have the Chapel Royal, its transepts ranging with the general façade, while its nave and ailes advance westward, their whole length displaying their surprising elegance and beauty; its façade is highly ornamented, the lower part composing a screen in front of the tower buttresses, giving a great depth to the arch of the Bishops' door, by forming a straight line with the buttresses; this screen has a series of niches, containing grand statues of the present Archbishops and Bishops, executed at their own expence, and said to be accurate portraits; all are of white marble of the proportion of 8 feet, placed upon pedestals, inscribed with the name and armorial bearings of each, and covered with delicately perforated canopies: its lofty arched door is finished with a canopy surrounding a figure of the Redeemer attended by angels. The four ponderous buttresses above the screen, have niches containing the four Evangelists and their emblems. A beautiful circular window lights the nave, above which are colossal figures of the Apostles; behind these rises the apex of the roof surmounted with an Angel holding a trumpet. The towers are further en |