*

throne, Elizabeth quitted the manor-house, and fixed her Enfield residence at Elsynge Hall. In 1582, she granted a lease of the former structure, for the term of fifty-one years, to Henry Myddlemore, Esq. The building was afterwards successively occupied by Lord William Howard, and Sir Thomas Trevor, one of the barons of the exchequer. About the year 1670, it was taken, and fitted up for the reception of scholars, by the Rev. Robert Uvedale (afterwards L.LD.) who was master of the Grammar School at Enfield, and whose name has acquired considerable celebrity in consequence of bis successful attention to botanical studies. The manor-house is now the property of Daniel Lister, Esq. and is occupied by Mr. Thomas May as a boarding-school for young gentlemen.

A great part of the original structure was taken down a few years back, at which time four additional houses were built from the old materials on a portion of the site. The remaining division has experienced many alterations, but the interior presents several vestiges of former splendour. On the groundfloor is a spacious apartment, which evidently constituted one of the principal rooms of the Princess Elizabeth's residence. The sides are covered with oaken pannels, and the ceiling is richly studded with pendant ornaments, each consisting of a drop with four spreading leaves. The chimney-piece is of stone, handsomely carved and embellished. At the sides are columns of the Ionic and Corinthian orders. In the centre are the arms of France and England quartered, with the garter and the royal supporters, a lion and a gryphon. Beneath is this motto:-SOLA SALUS SERVIRE DEO, SUNT CATERA FRAUDES. Among other decorations occur the cognizances of the rose and portcullis.

Over one of the doors of the same room is now placed

• We observe in the text that Elizabeth granted a lease of the manor. house to an individual in 1582. But she visited Enfield in 1561; 1564; and 1568. During these years the manorial residence was probably retained

for the use of the crown.

the central portion of another chimney-piece, removed from an upper apartment. The ornaments are nearly similar to those already noticed, but the attached motto consists of the following words :-UT ROS SUPER HERBAM, EST BENEVOLENTIA

REGIS.

Above stairs is still remaining the decorated ceiling of one of the original capacious apartments, now divided into smaller rooms. Amongst pendant ornaments resembling those of the ceiling on the ground floor, are introduced the crown, the rose, and the fleur-de-lis.

Dr. Uvedale, whose attachment to the study of Botany we have noticed above, formed a curious garden contiguous to the manor-house, which he enriched with a large collection of valuable exotics.* Amongst other trees he planted a cedar of Libanus, which has attracted much notice and is of a growth unusually fine. In a letter concerning the cultivation of cedars in England, written by Sir John Cullum, and printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, the height of this tree is said to be 45 feet 9 inches; 8 feet having been broken off by a high wind (supposed to be that of the year 1703). The girth near the ground is stated to be 14 feet 6 inches. In conjunction with Mr. May, who presides over the manor-house school, we measured this tree in the present year (1815), and found the girth to be 15 feet 8 inches, at about 1 foot 6 inches from the ground.

It has been found imposssible to discover, amidst the alterations effected even by a few ages, the exact site of Elsynge Hall, a building so interesting from its connection with past scenes of royal magnificence; but tradition and rational conjecture ascribe the foundation to a spot which we shall have occasion

* In that "Account of the most remarkable Gardens near London" to which we have before adverted, and which is printed in the 12th vol. of the Archæologia, Dr. Uvedale is said to have had the "greatest and choicest 'collection of exotics that was perhaps any where in this land." Linneus honoured him by calling some plants, after his name, Uvedalia.

occasion to notice, and which is comprised in the grounds now. attached to Forty Hall. Incidental to the history of both these, mansions it must be observed that the chief property in a ma-, nor formerly possessed by the family named de Enfelde, passed, in the year 1413, to Sir John Tiptoft, whose descendant was the learned and well-known Earl of Worcester, decapi-. tated in 1471, for his attachment to the house of York. From this family the manor obtained the name of Worcesters. It was afterwards vested in Thomas Lord Roos, of Hamlake, and in Sir Thomas Lovell, who was Knight of the Garter and Trea surer of the Household. This latter distinguished proprietor resided for many years at Enfield, where he was honoured, in 1516, with a visit from Margaret, Queen Dowager of Scotland, and sister of King Henry VIII.* On the decease of Sir Thomas Lovell,t the manor descended to Thomas, Earl of Rutland, and was given by the Earl, in the year 1540, to King Henry VIII. together with a capital mansion, termed Elsynge Hall.

We have already observed that this mansion was possibly the residence of Edward VI. during the first months of his reign. There is scarcely any reason to doubt but that the saine building was the occasional residence of Queen Elizabeth, after she, granted a lease of the manor-house to the Myddlemore family, in 1582. One of her visits to this seat is recorded in the memoirs of Carey, Earl of Monmouth, where it is observed that, 2 Z3 in

• When journeying towards London, after this visit, the Queen was met at "Maister Compton's house, besids Totnam," by her royal brother. Vide ante, article Tottenham.

Sir Thomas Lovell died at Enfield, and was buried, with all the pomp and attendant circumstances of feasting then judged due to his degree, in a chapel which he had founded in the priory of Holywell. The body lay for 11 days and nights in the chapel adjoining his mansion at Enfield; and was removed on the 12th day to the parish church, with great ceremony. On the following day it was conveyed to the place of burial. See a copy of the order and ceremonies used at his funeral, printed in the Environs of London, Vol. II. p. 192, after the original in the Heralds' College. Funerals I. xi. P. 82.

in the year 1596, "the Queen came to dinner to Enfield House, and had toils set up in the park, to shoot at bucks after dinner."

The manorial property of Worcesters was granted by Elizabeth, or by James I. to Sir Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury. By the Cecils the estate was alienated to Sir Nicholas Raynton, Alderman, and sometime Lord Mayor of London. It afterwards passed, in marriage, from the Raynton family to that of Wolstenholme; and was purchased, in 1799, by James Myer, Esq. the present proprietor.

In addition to the manor of Worcesters, Sir Nicholas Raynton purchased a contiguous house, described as some time Hugh Fortee's, which he rebuilt between the years 1629 and 1632. This structure (of which Inigo Jones is said to have been the architect) is still remaining, but was altered by the Wolstenholmes, according to the fashion of that age, about the year 1700. This mansion, now the residence of James Myers, Esq. is termed Forty Hall, and is a substantial family residence, placed on elevated ground and commanding pleasing prospects. The interior is adorned by the following among other wellchosen pictures :-A Holy Family by Rubens. The Saviour dead and supported by Mary, with attendant figures, by Annibal Caracci. This is supposed to be the small painting from which was afterwards executed the larger picture, now in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle. The Miraculous draught of Fishes, by David Teniers. Uriah bearing the fatal letter, a small but exquisite picture, by Albert Durer. The figure expresses an aggrieved but dignified acquiescence, which enforces commiseration. A good portrait of Sir Nicholas Raynton, who rebuilt the mansion. He is represented in his robes, as Lord Mayor, at the age of 74. The date of 1643, is affixed

to

From whom is derived the term Forty-hil', applied to the rising ground immediately beyond Baker Street, Enfield. This swell of land is vulgarly terined Four-tree hill.

to this portrait, and it is believed to have been painted by Dobson, pupil of Vandyck.

The grounds attached to this residence are extensive, and finely ornamented with wood and water. At the distance of about one quarter of a mile from the house, in the neighbourhood of a stream which runs to Enfield Wash, are some inequalities of surface which probably denote the site of Elsynge Hall, a mansion once thronged with the wise counsellors and gay courtiers of Queen Elizabeth's important era. Foundations of building are often discovered at this place, on digging; and, in dry summers, when the grass suffers and the soil depends for moisture on subterranean resources, the outlines of an extensive fabric, as to the vestiges of its ground-plan, may be easily perceived.

On quitting these presumed memorials of Elizabeth's palace, and proceeding towards the church of Enfield through Baker Street, we find on the right hand a retired and handsome family-residence, long occupied by a celebrated antiquary, the late RICHARD GOUGH, ESQ. The father of this eminent writer, Harry Gough, Esq. of Perry-hall, M. P. a director of the East India Company, &c. purchased in the year 1723, an estate at Enfield, which was much improved by the son and successor.* Mr. Gough became possessed of this property on the decease of his mother, in 1774, and continued to reside at Enfield, with the interruption of the various journeys connected with his topographical pursuits, until the time of his lamented death, which took place on the 20th of February, 1809. His remains were buried in the church-yard of Wormley, Herts, in a vault built for that purpose on the south side of the chancel, not far 224 from

"To the property at Enfield" (writes Mr. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, Vol. VI. p. 310.)" he made considerable additions by purchase, particularly of a large additional garden, and of a field nearly adjoining, adorned with a long row of beautiful chesnut trees, which, as he has often observed, were planted by his father, and were coæval with himself—and which he bought as full-grown timber."