The great hall is a noble apartment, with raised dais and carved screen;
and the Royalist Joneses looking down upon you on all sides, conspicuous
among whom is Thomas Jones and valiant Captain Arthur Jones, whose sword
beside him shows the good service he did at Worcester fight. When the
day was lost, and Charles was journeying towards Boscobel, the captain
managed to ride his tired horse back to Chastleton. But a party of
Cromwellian soldiers were at his heels, and his wife had only just time
to hurry him into an ingeniously contrived hiding-place when the enemy
confronted her, and refused to budge from the very bedroom behind whose
panelled walls the fugitive was secreted. But Mrs. Arthur Jones had her
share of tact, and in preparing her unwelcome guests some refreshment,
she added a narcotic to the wine, which in time had effect. Her husband
was then released, and with a fresh horse he was soon beyond danger. The
little oak wainscoted chamber and the adjoining bedroom may still be
seen where this exciting episode took place. The drawing-room is very
rich in oak carvings, and the lofty marble chimney-piece bears in the
centre the Jones' arms. The ceiling with its massive pendants is a fine
example of the period.[16] The bedrooms are all hung with the original
tapestry and arras that was made for them. One of them contains the
State bed from old Woodstock Palace; and there are everywhere antique
dressing-tables, mirrors, and quaint embroidered coverlets, and old
chests and cabinets innumerable containing queer old dresses and coats
of the Georgian period, and, what is more remarkable, the identical
Jacobean ruffs and frills which are depicted in the old portraits in the
hall. Then there are cupboards full of delightful old china, and
decanters and wine glasses which were often produced to drink a health
to the "King over the water." But of more direct historic interest is
Charles I.'s Bible, which was given by the widow of the last baronet of
the Juxon family--a grand-nephew of the archbishop--to the then
proprietor of Chastleton, John Jones. It is bound in gold stamped
leather, and bears the Royal arms with the initials C. R. It is dated
1629, and is full of queer old maps and illustrations, and upon the
fly-leaf is written--"Juxon, Compton, Gloucestershire."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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