Perhaps one of the chief attractions in Elizabethan architecture is that, by combining certain features of both classical and gothic architecture, it is a result, as well as an example, of that spirit of compromise so dear to the English nation. If somewhat less picturesque, and less rich and varied in colour, than the half-timbered houses of Elizabethan architecture, the stone buildings of the same style are more massive and stately in their appearance, and the newly-hewn stone of Gothurst[21] presented a remarkably fine front, with its pillared porch, its lengthy series of mullioned windows, and its solid wings at either side. It was built upon rising ground, which declined gradually to the rich, if occasionally marshy, meadows bordering on the river Ouse.[22] It was a large house, although, like many others built in the same style, the rooms were rather low in proportion to their size.[23] The approach was through a massive gateway,[24] from which an avenue of yews--which had existed in the time of the older house that formerly stood on the same site--led up to the square space in front of the door. Near the gateway was the old church, which was then in a very indifferent state of repair,[25] and below this were three pieces of water. Beyond them ran the river Ouse, and on the opposite side stood the old tower and church of Tyringham. If the house was new, it was very far from being the pretentious erection of a newly-landed proprietor. Yet the estate on which it stood had more than once been connected with a new name, owing to failures in the male line of its owners and the marriages of its heiresses, since it had been held by a De Nouers, under the Earl of Kent, half-brother to William the Conqueror. It had passed[26] by marriage to the De Nevylls in 1408; it had passed in the same way to the Mulshos in the reign of Henry VIII., and I am about to show that, at the end of the sixteenth century, it passed again into another family through the wedding of its heiress. [21] "Antiently Gaythurst," says Pennant in his _Journey_. It is now called Gayhurst. [22] See Pennant's _Journey from Chester to London_, p. 437, _seq._ Also Lipscomb's _History and Antiquities of Bucks_, Vol. iv. 158, _seq._ [23] The house is still standing, and is the residence of Mr Carlile. The further side was enlarged, either in the eighteenth or very early in the nineteenth century, in the style of Queen Anne; but this in no way spoils the effect of the remarkably fine old Elizabethan front. [24] This has disappeared. [25] Poem on _Everard Digby_, written by the present owner of Gothurst, and privately printed. [26] See Pennant's _Journey_, p. 438.