‘Tis sweet, as the dawn flashes over the lawn,
The old manor-house to see;
To hear the roused rooks, in their leafy nooks,
And the hum of the sportive bee:
‘Tis merry to mark, in the smooth-shaven park,‘Tis sweet, when the sun, his race being ran,
Kisses the mansion so old :
Warms the mossed wall, lights up the oak ball,
and bathes the trees in cold:
When the deer are at rest, and the rook seeks his nest,
And no sonnd in the calm air swells.
Save the peasant’s low song, as he winds along,
Or the distant village bells.—MICHELL.
Hurley is situated near Maidenhead, in Berkshire, among some of the most fascinating scenery which adorns the picturesque banks of the Thames; and is connected with several historical reminiscences of an interesting character. According to the old records or Domesday Book it once belonged to Edgar, but, after the Conquest, was given by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Mandeville, as a reward for gallant conduct at the battle of Hastings: in the year 1086 the fortunate warrior, after the approved fashion of those times, founded there a monastery of the Benedictine order, and annexed it as a cell to Westminster Abbey, where the original charter was deposited. Although the rules of monastic life are exceedingly stringent, and the austerities which they enjoin are of a most self-denying nature, it has generally been observed, that these religious solitaries usually selected, as the scenes of their seclusion, some of the most lovely spots in creation. Mr. Ireland, in his ” Picturesque Views of the River Thames,” has remarked, that “the fascinating scenery of this neighbourbood has peculiarly attracted the notice of the clergy of former periods; who, in spite of the thorny and crooked ways which they have asserted to be the surest road to heaven, have been careful to select some flowery paths for their own private journeyings thither; among which ranks Hurley, or Lady Place, formerly a monastery.” We confess we like not the wit of this passage: the discipline of & monastery in those days was no “primrose path of dalliance,” and the peaceful solitude which nature seemed to have marked as a fitting place for the abode of calm content and prayer would assuredly be a spot happily chosen for heavenly contemplation; or, in their retirement from the oppressions and contentions of the world, these recluses might wish to refresh their spirits with devout meditations on the majestic works of the Eternal; and thus realise the philosophy so poetically expressed by the gifted though wayward “Childe”—
“To sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene,
Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been :
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold:
Alone o’er steeps and foaming falls to lean,
This is not solitude: ’tis but to hold
Converse with Nature’s charms, and view her stores unrolled.”
On the dissolution of the monasteries, Hurley became the property of a family named Chamberlain, of whom, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was purchased by Richard Lovelace, a soldier of fortune, who accompanied the famous navigator, Sir Francis Drake, in an expedition against the Spaniards; and, with the wealth acquired by that enterprise, erected the present mansion on the ruins of the ancient building. The remains of the monastery may be traced in the numerous apartments at the west end of the house: portions of the refectory may also be seen in the stables, the windows of which are of chalk, and, though nearly eight centuries old, have all the freshness of modern workmanship: and in a vault beneath the hall some bodies have been found buried, “with their monkish garbs around them.” The hall is very spacious, occupying nearly half the extent of the mansion; and the saloon is profusely decorated with some landscapes of singular beauty, reputed to be the paintings of the celebrated Salvator Rosa. During the reign of James the Second, frequent meetings of the nobility were held in a subterranean vault beneath Hurley House, for the purpose of devising plans to resist the encroaching despotism of the rash and tyrannical sovereign; and here was matured that well-directed project, which terminated in the vindication of British liberty, by the expulsion of James from the throne, and the arrival of William the Third “for the deliverance of our church and nation.” It is asserted that the papers that produced the revolution were signed by this “band of brothers” in a dark recess at the end of the vault; and an inscription recording the transaction was afterwards placed there. No wonder that a spot thus sacred to the cause of civil and religious liberty should be regarded with such interest, as to have been visited by the monarch to whose hands these circumstances transferred the sceptre of England; and that curiosity has also attracted thither many eminent personages, George the Third and his Queen having been among the number.
As there are many to whom incidents of a singular and more domestic nature are as interesting as the more important or romantic details of history, we must not close our notice without observing, that, when the peerage of the Lovelace family became extinct, the estate was sold; and that part which consisted of the mansion and the woodlands was disposed of to Mrs. Williams, sister to Dr. Wilcox, Bishop of Rochester. This lady was enabled to make the purchase by a remarkable instance of good fortune; she had bought two tickets in one lottery, both of which were drawn prizes—the one of £500, the other of £20,000. From the daughter of Mrs. Williams the property descended to Mr. Wilcox, son of the bishop. In his beautiful play of “The Hunchback,” Sheridan Knowles makes Sir Thomas Clifford say:—
” ‘Twas still my father’s precept, ‘ Better owe
A yard of land to labour, than to chance
Be debtor for a rood.’ “
But we suppose Mrs. Williams would not be of old Clifford’s counsel in that matter.
The Illustrated London News, London, England, Week Ending December 3, 1842
