A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the house.' The building thus followed the usual 

 plan of the medieval manor-house, with a hall between 

 the solar block at one end and the kitchen and its 

 offices on the other. The crenellated wall of 1328 

 inclosed the court on three sides : a considerable 

 length of it remains on the south, and there are por- 

 tions of it in the lower parts of the east wall. The 

 house thus stood across the middle of a walled 

 inclosure, with another court upon the north side. 



The arrangement of the buttresses in the south 

 wall of the courtyard indicates that there was originally 

 a gateway on the site of the present one, and it is 

 probable that the screens of the hall were entered 

 at the position of the present doorway.^ Henry 

 Green, how-ever, who died in 1467-8, appears to have 

 made an entrance-porch upon the north side of the 

 hall, which he covered with a range of buildings, 

 continued westward and returned southward as a 

 south-west wing nearly as far as the boundary-wall. 

 The old building was thus inclosed on the north and 

 west sides by these additions ; and about the same 

 time a two-floored building was added at the south- 

 east corner of the house, communicating with the 

 cellar and great chamber. 



In 1584 the north-east wing, which bears the date 

 upon its west front, was added by the second Lord 

 Mordaunt of Turvey. At the south-east end of it a 

 tower was built, and was joined to the 15th-century 

 projection at the other end of the solar block. The 

 whole of the east side of the house was thus covered, 

 and, beyond these buildings, a lower range was con- 

 structed as far as the boundary wall, forming a south- 

 east wing and inclosing the east side of the court. 

 Lord Mordaunt appears also to have heightened the 

 north-west angle of the house into a tower corre- 

 sponding to that at the opposite end of the building. 



Some important alterations were made by Henry 

 Mordaunt, second earl of Peterborough, towards the 

 close of the 17th century. The main entrance to 

 the house, w'hich, at any rate since 1468, had been on 

 the north, was shifted from north to south, what had 

 been the basecourt now becoming the entrance court- 

 yard. A new gateway was made in the boundary 

 wall. The gardens were laid out, the small ban- 

 queting houses at the corners of the east garden were 

 built, and the work of refurnishing the interior of 

 the house was begun. These works were continued 

 and completed on a lavish scale after the marriage 

 of Lord Peterborough's daughter and heiress, Mary, 

 Duchess of Norfolk, to Sir John Germain. The whole 

 south front of the main block, now the principal 

 front of the house, was refaced and transformed ; 

 sash-windows were freely inserted in place of the old 

 mullioned windows in other parts of the building ; 

 and the fine scries of iron gates and stone gateposts 

 was made for the approaches to house and gardens. 

 The interior of the building was greatly altered by the 

 insertion of new staircases, and the hall and great 

 chamber received their present form. 



During the long tenure of Drayton by Sir John 

 Germain's widow, Lady Betty (Elizabeth Berkeley), 

 the entrance courtyard received some additions. 



The buildings adjoining the east and west sides of 

 the gateway, behind the I4th-centur>' wall, are earlier 

 than her time ; but she fitted up the chapel east of 

 the gateway, and added the colonnades on the east 

 and west sides of the court. Towards the close of 

 the 1 8th century. Lord George Germain (Sackville) 

 decorated the dining-room on the west side of the 

 house and the drawing-room in the Elizabethan 

 north-east wing. Subsequently, in the time of Mr. 

 W. B. Stopford-Sackville, new kitchen offices were 

 built west of the dining-room, and various minor 

 works of restoration and repair were effected by him 

 and his son, the late Mr. S. G. Stopford-Sackville. 



The house stands in a hollow, and the best general 

 view is obtained from the rising ground at some 

 distance to the south, by the gate, now standing 

 isolated at the head of a grass slope, which formed 

 the main outer approach. From this point, at a 

 level higher than the roofs, it is possible to distinguish 

 clearly the component parts of the building and trace 

 the additions which have inclosed and transformed 

 the main block : the view is one of remarkable interest 

 and beauty, and from this point alone the symmetrical 

 balance of the towers at the further corners of the 

 main block can be fully appreciated. 



The present south front, through which the court- 

 yard is entered, measures approximately 240 ft. from 

 east to west. At the west end, on the site of the old 

 brewhouse, is a modern building, projecting westwards 

 and southwards, the space between which and the 

 line of the 14th-century wall of inclosure is filled by 

 an Elizabethan addition at the end of the south-west 

 wing. The 14th-century wall, which slopes slightly 

 south of east, is continued for 65 ft. with three 

 buttresses to the point where, beyond the third 

 buttress, it is broken by the gateway. This, 18 ft. 

 wide, with a round arch between two curved niches, 

 and with a pediment in which is the shield of Mor- 

 daunt with an earl's coronet, apparently occupies the 

 site of an earlier gateway. East of this is a fourth 

 buttress, and the old wall is continued for another 

 65 ft., with an intermediate buttress, to the end of 

 the south-east wing, which is 20 ft. broad. The 

 face of the lower part of this end, with an inserted 

 16th-century window, is still part of the old wall, 

 whicli is slightly gathered in at this point. 



The east or garden front of the house is 235 ft. 

 long from north to south, and consists of four portions. 

 For some 80 ft. from the south end, tlie Elizabethan 

 south-east wing, a low building of two stories, incor- 

 porates, as on the south side, portions of the boundary 

 wall in its lower part. North of this is a three 

 storied block, the south part of which is the 15th- 

 century projection from the great chamber and cellar, 

 while the north part belongs to the Elizabethan 

 additions, but was largely refaced in the l8th century. 

 This is followed by the north-east tower, which rises 

 a story above the roofs, witii tall angle-turrets, and is 

 crowned by an elegant leaded cupola on wooden 

 pillars, added in the 1 8th century. The front is 

 completed by the north-east wing, 100 ft. from north 

 to south, with three doors above a vaulted basement. 



• The late Mr. G. F. Dodley, who viiiicd 

 Drayton in 1900, thought that the dctalli 

 of the cellar pointed to a date ai early ai 

 1270 J but, compared with other local 

 work of a limilar kind, they ihow no 



ch.iractcriitici which are ncccuarily 

 earlier th.in c. 1300. 



* It icrmB that the north porch, added 

 in the 15th century, tlien became the 

 principal entrance; but there arc no 



232 



signs of an earlier entrance in connection 

 with it, and the opening from it into the 

 hall ii an oblii|ue cut, which secmt to 

 have been made ai part of a new arrange- 

 ment. 



