1'HK RHYMED CHRONICLE OK JOHN HARESTAFFE. 77 



little town of Bradwell for Tideswell. The front of the house is 

 of stone covered with rough plaster, and is whitewashed, except 

 the mullions and corners. The old stone coping has been 

 removed when the roof was slated. In the apex of the gable are 

 the arms, crest, and lettering shown on the plate. The Vernon 

 crest, a boar's head erased, ducally gorged, is fairly distinct. The 

 quartered arms are much weathered, but they show the Vernon 

 frett and the Swynnerton cross fleury. The date 1549 is very 

 legible, and so are the initials H.V and the three strokes or I's 

 that come after. What the III stands for is a puzzle. The most 

 likely solution that occurs to us is this — namely, that Henry 

 Vernon, the son of Sir John, who rebuilt this part of the 

 manor house, did so just at the time of or immediately after the 

 birth of his second son Henry, and signalised the birth by terming 

 Henry Vernon the third, taking his grandfather, Sir Henry Vernon 

 of Haddon, as the first. 



Another epoch in the building history of the Vernons is eluci- 

 dated by Harestaffe, and in this instance of far more importance 

 to the main family, for it refers to Sudbury Hall. Up to the 

 death of John Vernon, the rectory house had often been utilised 

 by the lord of Sudbury, as for some time there had been no 

 manor house. Soon after peace had been made between the 

 litigants by the marriage of Sir Edward Vernon with his cousin 

 Margaret in 1613, Mistress Mary Vernon began to plan out a new 

 manor house, which is the present hall. It was evidently com- 

 pleted, according to the monument, before her death in 1622. 

 The ornamental garden walls were erected by her son not long 

 after. The charming doorway, surmounted by a cross, leading 

 from the grounds to the churchyard (Plate IV.*), is flanked on 

 the one side by a stone inscribed Omne bonum, Dei donum, and 

 on the other by the initials of Edward and Margaret Vernon, with 

 the arms of Vernon, and two crosses fleury (intended perhaps for 

 Swynnerton) above the date 1626. The same initials, arms, and 



•For the drawings on this plate we are indebted to the able pencil of Dr. 

 Livesay, of Sudbury. 



