OLD LOUGHTON HALL. 21 



is Stated, had been accumulating during two centuries. The mere 

 pecuniary loss was estimated at something between ;^2o,ooo and 

 ^30,000, to say nothing of the greater losses on which no money 

 value could be set. Even at this distance of time, the thought of 

 that disaster, endured, as it was, with manly fortitude, serves to 

 awaken in one emotions of sympathy and regret. 



The gloom which followed on the glare of the burning house is 

 penetrated for us by a ray of kindlier light, when we read of the good 

 services of friends and neighbours, and of the " extraordinary 

 exertions of the labourers, with whom Mr. Maitland was a great 

 favourite." These exertions he himself was not, in spite of all, 

 backward in recognising. ■ For just three weeks later " The Essex 

 Standard " (December 30th) reported that Mr. Maitland, in com- 

 missioning his steward to announce that he would that year double 

 his customary liberal Christmas gifts, "emphatically observed: 'When 

 the Hall was on fire, full 200 of my humble neighbours came to my 

 assistance, and they worked hard ; and not one of them was a thief.' " 



For many years the great iron gates, surmounted by the Wroth 

 crest and the interlaced initials of John and Elizabeth, the last of the 

 Loughton branch of the family, kept guard over the foundations of 

 the ancient house. In the year 1879, however, the road, which 

 passed in front of them and beside the old church of S. Nicholas, 

 was diverted to its present course, and a new house, designed by Mr. 

 W. Eden Nesfield, was built on the old site by the Rev. John 

 Whitaker Maitland, the first clerical owner of the manor since 

 Robert Fuller, last of the long line of Abbots of the Holy Cross at 

 AValtham, signed the Deed of Surrender on March 23rd, 1540." 



NOTE. — An incidental reference to the rebuilding of Old 

 Loughton Hall, on which I have since lighted, occurs in the 

 Chancery Forest Roll, No. 153, which is dated Sep. 21, 1630 

 (6 Car. L) :— " Item, wee finde that S' Robte. Wroth, K*^ deceased, 

 about sixteene yeres past did build some parte of the howse called 

 Loughton Hall upon an old ffoundacion, nowe in the occupacion of 

 the Lady Mary Wroth." This, which does not profess to be exact, 

 brings us sufticiently near to 1616, the date said to have been found 

 on the leaden spouts. — W. C. W. 



22 Aug : Office, No. 252. 



