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the modern Mansion, built in the form of an H of Ham Hill 
stone. A stone seat remains in the Park, seated on which Sir 
Walter Raleigh is said to have smoked the first pipe in England, 
to the amazement of his valet, who returning from the Mansion 
with a tankard of ale at the instant, emptied it over his master 
to stay his conflagration. The Park contains magnificent cedars 
and oaks and aged yews, and the lake is absolutely full of | 
white water-lilies. Walking round the W. end of this lake the 
Southern facade of the Mansion is reached, adorned with the 
heraldic insignia of the Digby family and the extraordinary 
crest, an ostrich with a horseshoe in its mouth, this bird being 
supposed to be capable of eating and digesting anything. The 
central part of the Mansion was built, 1514, by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, after whose decapitation King James I. presented it to 
_ his minion, Carr, Earl of Somerset, ‘This worthless scoundrel 
was convicted of the murder of Sir T. Overbury, and the estate, 
escheating to the Crown, was granted to Sir J. Digby, Ambas- 
sador to Spain, created Earl of Bristol, 1618. In the Crom- 
wellian period, 1645, Fairfax took it after a siege of 16 days, 
and by order of Parliament the old Castle was ‘‘ slighted,” and 
immense plunder taken from the Mansion. In the Minster’s 
S. transept there is a magnificent monument to the first Earl of 
Bristol standing in armour life-size between his two wives, the 
first being honoured with the very briefest description, the 
second, who erected this memorial to her husband, most fulsomely 
describing her own merits, and claiming to have possessed. his 
whole heart. The monument was the work of Nost, an Italian 
sculptor, and the Epitaph to the Earl, who died in 1698, is by 
Bishop Hough, of Worcester. 
Returning into the town, Mr. W. B. Wildman, who had acted 
as “cicerone” to'the party throughout the whole day, was most 
“heartily thanked for his kindness and imparted information, and, 
leaving the Station at half-past five, the return journey to Bath 
_was effected without incident in less than two hours. The objects 
