“A huge rambling building, half castle, half dwelling-house. On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the lofty walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated turrets, loop-holes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones and fire on the besiegers, but the southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art. And towards the east, where the vista of the valley opened, the old walls were gone, and the frowning Norman keep, ruined in the wars of the Roses, had been replaced by the rich and stately architecture of the Tudors. Altogether the house, like the time, was in a transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough the passage of the old Middle Age into the newer life that had just burst into blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn and winter,” etc. Hawker’s reference to Stowe having been turned into an academy for all the young men of family in the county is correct. He is quoting from George Granville’s (Lord Lansdowne) letter to his nephew, who tells us that Sir Bevill-- “provided the best masters for all kinds of education, and the children of his neighbours shared the advantage with his own. Thus, in a manner, he became the father of his county, and not only engaged the affection of the present generation, but laid a foundation of friendship for posterity which has not worn out to this day.” John Granville, Earl of Bath, pulled down old Stowe, and in its place, though on a different site a little farther from the shore, built a magnificent new mansion (covering 3-1/2 acres of ground, and containing, it is said, 365 windows) out of the moneys he had received from the Government as a debt owing to himself and his father for their sacrifices to the royal cause. Dr. Borlase describes this new house as “by far the noblest in the west of England, though with not a tree to shelter it.” And in the MS. diary of Dr. Yonge, F.R.S., a distinguished physician of the latter part of the seventeenth century, the following entry occurs in the year 1685:-- “I waited on my lord of Bathe, then Governor of Plymouth, to his delicious house Stowe. It lyeth on y^e ledge of y^e North Sea of Devon,--a most curious fabrick beyond all description.” Here lived John, Earl of Bath. His son Charles, Lord Granville, shot himself (accidentally the jury found) while preparing for the journey into Cornwall to take down his father’s body for burial, and they were both buried together in Kilkhampton Church, September 27th, 1701. His boy, William Henry, then nine years of age, succeeded, but died of small-pox, unmarried, May 17th, 1711, aged nineteen.