MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 368.] JUNE 1, 1822. [5 of Vol. 53. 
ae 
TATE 
: me 
GORHAMBURY, THE RESIDENCE OF LORD BACON. 
WHAT remains of the residence of the Founder of modern Philosophy is only a small 
part of a much larger edifice, but even this relict is embraced, nay, almost enshronded, 
by an ever-green wreath of affectionate ivy. The building, says Mr. Williams in his 
History of St. Albans, consists of two parts, discordant in their mamner, yet in various 
respects of a classical taste. On the outside of that part which forms the approach, is 
the piazza, the one being intended for enjoying the shade, and the other to eateh, during 
winter, the comfortable warmth of the sun. The walls of the piazza were painted, ul 
fresco, with the adventures of Ulysses, by Van Koepen. In one is the statue of Henr 
VIII ; in another, the bust of the barrister Sir Nicholas Bacon, and another of his lady. 
Over the entrance from the court into the hall are these lines :— 
HC CVM PERFECIT NICHOLAVS TECTA BACONYVS 
ELIZABETH REGNI LVSTRA FVERE DVO. 
FACTVS EQVES MAGNI CVSTOS FVIT IPSE SIGILLI. 
GLORIA SIT SOLI TOTA TRIBVTA DEO. 
MEDIOCRIA FIRMA. 
Some lines over the statue of Orpheus, that stood on the entranee into the orchard, 
shew what a waste the place was before possessed by this great man. 
Horrida nuper eram aspectu iatebreque ferarum 
Ruricolis tantum numivibusque locus. 
Edomitor fauste hic dum forte supervenit Orpheus 
Ulterius qui me non sinit esse rudem ; 
Convocat avulsis virgulta virentia truncis, 
Et sedem que vel diis placuisse potest. 
Sique mei cultor, sicut est mihi cultus et Orpheus. : 
Floreat o noster cultus amorque diu! 
Inan orchard was built an elegant summer-house, (no longey existing,) not dedicated 
to Bacchanalian festivity, but to refined converse on the liberal arts, which were decy- 
phered (depicted) on the walls, with the heads of Cicero, Aristotle, and other illustrious 
ancients and moderns who had excelled in each. This estate had been conveyed by 
Lord Chancellor Verulam to bis kinsman, Sir Thomas Meautys, then the secretary to the 
privy council, and who had been secretary to his lordship, previous to his conviction. 
Sir Harbottle Grimstone, the ancestor of the present noble possessor, Earl Verulam, 
oo the estate of Sir Thomas, sometime towards the latter end of the sixteenth, or 
inning of the seventeenth century, 
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