“Since the unhappy surprise of Stafford by the rebelles, the place where I am is not safe, either for myself or my goodes, and therefore I have sent 2 wagons loaded with some household stuffe, which I desire, with your dispensac’on, may bee received into your towne of Shrewsbury, into a roome which I have longe reserved in myne owne handes for this purpose against a tyme of neede; and that to this effecte you will please to give order unto your watch for free passage to and fro, whereby you will oblige mee more and more to remayne “Yoʳ ever affectionate frende, “R. LEVESON.” “Lilleshall Lodge, 16 May, 1643. “_To my muche respected frende, Sʳ Francis Oteley, Kt. Governour of Shrewsburye. Haste these._” Sir Richard Leveson built the old hall at Trentham in 1633, two views of which are given in Dr. Plot’s singular “Natural History of Staffordshire.” He died in 1661. His widow, Lady Catherine Leveson, was a great benefactress to the parish, and died at Trentham in 1678. The present Hall, previous to the recent most happy and successful “transformation” under the direction of Mr. Barry, was built on the model of Buckingham House, in St. James’s Park. It has now become, by the addition of the semicircular colonnade, rich carriage porch surmounted by the ducal arms, and baronial tower, an imposing and stately mansion, enriched with much diversity of outline. A massy structure near the Hall was erected by the late Marquis of Stafford as a family mausoleum, in the Egyptian style; the grounds around it being planted with various species of yew and other sombre plants, of a lofty, pointed, and pyramidal form. The ponderous architecture, the deeply-tinted foliage and heavenward aspect of the evergreens, form most appropriate emblems, both of human frailty and of the brighter hopes of the Christian. The park is marked by the unrestrained native beauties of the neighbouring wood of oaks, “wild above rule or art,” and by the river Trent expanding into a goodly lake:-- “A gentle stream, Adown the vale its serpent courses winds, Seen here and there through breaks of trees to gleam, Gilding their dancing boughs with noon’s reflected beam.” [Illustration: From a drawing by J. D. Harding. Day & Son, Lithʳˢ. to The Queen. HELMINGHAM HALL, SUFFOLK.] HELMINGHAM HALL, SUFFOLK.