Hi. THE MID-PIDDLE VALLEY. 



that " Pudele Walthereston." It was the ancient seat of the Martyns 

 before they removed to Athelhampton. Practically nothing remains 

 of this earlier house, which was thatched. The manor has belonged 

 successively to the families of Newburgh, Marney, Howard, and 

 Strangways. As far as I can ascertain, the south front, which is the 

 most interesting part of the present house, was built about 1550, the 

 decorated east gable being added in 1586 ; the date is clearly visible 

 above the round window. When I bought the house the doorway 

 in this gable was blocked up, and the three little windows plastered 

 over. Though the glass and casements were gone, the original bars 

 were found, and the mullions, and this and the doorway were restored 

 according to the engraving in Nash's " Mansions of England." This 

 gable, and probably the south front, were built by Thomas Howard, 

 second son of Viscount Bindon. The south front has not been touched 

 with the exception of removing some of the ivy, which has shown up 

 the beautiful colour of the brickwork and moulded-brick heads to the 

 windows. The waterways here are interesting, being obviously made 

 large so that the water should not be too concentrated and make 

 holes in the ground, there being of course no pipes originally. The 

 ornamentation round the doorway on to the balcony on the west front 

 of the house is very elaborate, with " shell " niches on each side. The 

 south porch has some typical Tudor ornamentation, and leadwork 

 along the top. The arches in the wing walls and in the garden house 

 came out of the house, and these walls were made up from material 

 taken from an old house pulled down near by. In the garden is an old 

 stone niche, and two figures in the garden house. The house was 

 seriously damaged by fire in 1863 and restored in 1864, when the cyder 

 house was built, which now forms the present kitchen. The fire 

 unfortunately destroyed nearly everything of interest inside the house. 

 The raised walk round the lawn was probably erected before there were 

 any fences, to keep the cattle from the marshes, rather than for 

 defence. In Thomas Hardy's " Far from the Madding Crowd " there 

 is a particularly pretty description of the house : " By daylight the 

 bower of Oak's new-found mistress, Bathsheba Everdene, presented 

 itself as a hoary building of the Jacobean stage of classic renaissance as 

 regards its architecture, and of a proportion which told at a glance 

 that, as is so frequently the case, it had once been the manorial hall 

 upon a small estate around it. Fluted pilasters, worked from the 

 solid stone, decorated its front, and above the roof pairs of chimneys 

 were here and there linked by an arch, some gables and other un- 

 manageable features still retaining traces of their Gothic extraction. 

 Soft brown mosses, like faded velveteen, formed cushions upon the 

 stone tiling, and tufts of the houseleek or seagreen sprouted from the 

 eaves." 



