WEST DORSET. xli. 



PARNHAM. 



The " home " part of the ample, richly- timbered deer 

 park of 70 acres surrounding Parnham Manor is now under- 

 going as great alteration as the interior of the house itself ; 

 for Mr. Hans Sauer, the wealthy Sud-Afrikander, who lately 

 purchased the ancient seat of the Strodes and the Oglanders, 

 is laying it out with gardens, lawns, and lakes, the effect of 

 which, when complete, promises to be a triumph of the 

 landscape-gardener's art. Under the cool shade cast by the 

 limbs and leafage of immemorial trees the party approached 

 the house, over which they were courteously allowed to look 

 by the new owner. And most were of opinion that it was 

 better to see the house in its present dismantled condition, 

 in state of transition, than not at all. Those who had visited 

 Parnham during the time of the late Mr. Vincent Robinson, 

 the well-known virtuoso who filled it with old carpets and 

 tapestries, furniture, armour, and a miscellany of objects of 

 virtu, could not fail to be struck by the change in the appear- 

 ance of the rooms and in the fabric itself. 



Mr. ALFRED POPE in the hall called attention to the fact that a 

 new screen, of about the date 1650, brought from a distance, is here 

 being erected, upon which the ancient minstrel-gallery will be 

 reinstated, the two original doors opening into which, and subse- 

 quently blocked up, having been re-opened. The hall has been re- 

 panelled with oak in linen-fold pattern, surmounted like a dado by a 

 series of heads of Holbein types. The old drawing-room is being 

 converted into an exquisite library, wainscotted in oak, the wood and 

 the carving being all new, although wrought in old style. The fine 

 fireplaces and carved doorways, the plaster ceilings and candelabra, 

 were all duly inspected and admired, and the exterior of the house 

 also received the attention it deserves, the warm mellowness of the 

 stonework well matching the simple, harmonious Tudor architecture. 

 What the original Parnham House was like one would be interested 

 to know. The present building dates back from Henry VIII., when, 

 it is recorded, Robert Strode " re-edified and enlarged the house 

 with Hamden ashlar stone." 



