HertfordshireTompkins, Herbert W. (Herbert Winckworth)
History
Hertfordshire
Tompkins, Herbert W. (Herbert Winckworth)
Hertfordshire (England) -- Guidebooks
Among other apartments the following should be visited: (1) _The
Chapel_, with its fine Flemish windows representing scriptural stories,
marble altar-piece, and open stalls; (2) the _Winter Dining Room_,
looking out upon the N. terrace, about 30 feet square; this room
contains many valuable pictures, including Wilkie's Duke of Wellington,
Van Somer's James I. and Charles I., and Kneller's Peter the Great; (3)
_Great Banqueting Hall_; (4) _Summer Dining Room_, near the foot of the
great staircase; the bust of Burleigh, in white marble, is above the
door; (5) the _Armoury_, full of treasures "rich and rare," suits of
armour, relics of the Spanish Armada, various arms, etc. Other pictures
in various parts of the house include (1) William III., and Lady
Ranelagh, by Kneller; (2) half-length of Elizabeth with jewelled
head-dress and grotesquely embroidered gown; Mildred Coke, mother of
the first earl; Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter: all by Zucchero; (3) fine
whole-length of Mary, first Marchioness of Salisbury, by Reynolds.
The Park is the largest in the county, being about 9 miles in
circumference; it is undulating and beautifully wooded. There are some
superb avenues. Of Queen Elizabeth's oak, N.E. from the N. terrace,
little is left saving a portion of trunk, railed round; but the Lion
Oak, between the house and the great W. gates, still puts forth leaves
in its season. The maze close to the house is only less famous than that
at Hampton Court.
The Church of St. Ethelreda is cruciform, largely Dec. and one of the
largest in the county. A Norman arch in the S. transept is thought to be
a portion of the original structure. It was completely restored, indeed
almost rebuilt, in 1872. The nave is 102 feet by 20 feet; the chancel
about 40 feet by 20 feet. There are N. and S. porches; the former looks
almost directly upon the great gate-house of the old palace. The most
important among many features of interest is the--
_Salisbury Chapel_, N. side of chancel, from which it is divided by an
arcade of three arches on Ionic granite columns. The whole is enclosed
by beautifully designed iron gates, the work, probably, of an unknown
Italian. Note the marble wainscotting, and the finely conceived and
executed allegorical paintings and mosaics on walls and roof. At the E.
side, on a slab of black marble supported by four kneeling figures in
white marble (representing the cardinal virtues) lies the recumbent
effigy of Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer
of England (d. 1612). The effigy is in robes, with official staff in
hand. Beneath the slab is a skeleton in white marble. Note also in this
chapel mezzo-relievo effigy to William Curll, Esq. (d. 1617), with
inscription, almost illegible, to the effect that he was a most
Christian knight who died in hope of a joyful resurrection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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