HUXLOE HUNDRED 



LOWICK 



The lowest floor, on a higher level than those in the 

 rest of the house, is entered from the garden by a 

 stone stair parallel with the wall of the tower, and 

 an excellently proportioned doorway, inserted by 

 Sir John Germain, whose shield is carved above 

 it. The style of this wing is tlie local variety of 

 Elizabethan stonework, without any mixture of 

 foreign influence : the gables and their kncelers, at 

 the north end of the block, are ornamented with stone 

 balls, but otherwise the work is simple and severe. 

 The garden front has three projecting chimney- 

 blocks, rising into massive stacks, with moulded tops 

 and shafted angles. As already mentioned, this com- 

 posite east front was much altered by the substitution 

 of sasli-windows in the 1 8th century for the earlier 

 mullioned windows ; but in recent times some of the 

 muUioned openings have been restored. 



The north-east wing is returned eastwards at its 

 north end, and there is a similar, but wider projection 

 on the west side, which gives it a T shape. The north 

 front, 60 ft. long from east to west, rises from the 

 ground without any projection, and was somewhat 

 altered in the 18th century by the insertion of a row 

 of alcoves at the ground level and of a large Venetian 

 window, now removed, on the top floor. The north- 

 west projection is externally 20 ft. east to west and 

 18 ft. north to south. The west front of the range is 

 well lighted, as the fireplaces and chimney-blocks 

 are all on the opposite side ; and mid-way in the wall 

 between the north-west projection and the return 

 which covers the junction of the building with the 

 older part of the house, a rectangular projection with 

 mullioned windows lights the north end of the 

 drawing-room and the rooms on the upper floors. 



At its south end this wing was returned 20 ft. 

 westward along the north face of the cellar at the end 

 of the main block, the first floor being added to the 

 area of the great chamber. The return, with a small 

 18th-century addition on the west, projects about 

 10 ft. from the north front. This, though somewhat 

 modernised, is mainly of the 15th century. The main 

 portion, 95 ft. from east to west, forms a range covering 

 the hall and dining-room in the principal block, and 

 has an inserted doorway approximately in the middle, 

 the story above which is crowned by battlements with 

 a high half-octagon centrepiece, entirely different in 

 design from the battlements of the rest of the building. 

 It is clear, as stated already, that this part of the front 

 originally formed a projecting porch with a room 

 above, and that the spaces on either side were filled 

 in later, so that their outer walls were flush with the 

 north waU of the porch. There are signs of a break in 

 the masonry east of the porch which point to this. 

 .. If these additions were originally batllemented, the 

 battlements were removed and wooden dormer 

 windows with square pediments substituted, pro- 

 bably by Lord Peterborough. The mullioned windows 

 of this part of the front have been very thoroughly 

 restored. To the west is a modern projecting block 

 with a front of 20 ft., and to the west again the 15th- 

 century work, slightly recessed from the rest, con- 

 tinues for 32 ft. to the angle of the building, this 

 portion forming the base of the north-west tower, 

 which, like the other, is finished with battlements and 

 an added cupola. 



The west front retains considerable portions of 

 iSth-century walling, and the wing added to the house 



at that period had a frontage of 118 ft. The modern 

 kitchen, which projects westward, occupies most of 

 the north part of this front. At the south-west angle is 

 a large modern projecting building, which, as pre- 

 viously stated, is connected with the rest of the 

 entrance front by an addition of Elizabethan date. 



Returning to the gateway in the south front, we 

 pass beneath its vault into the paved courtyard, which 

 is an oblong measuring 50 ft. from north to south by 

 108 ft. between the colonnades from east to west, the 

 latter measurement being slightly reduced, owing 

 to the inward, though not exactly parallel slope of 

 the colonnades, on the north side. The vaulted 

 gateway-passage measures 25 ft. from north to south, 

 including the archways at either end. East of the 

 passage is the chapel, internally 48 ft. from east to 

 west by 18 ft. from north to south, and on the west 

 side a line of offices connects the gateway with the 

 kitchen. These belong to Lord Peterborough's 

 buildings, but the furniture of the chapel was added 

 by Lady Betty Germain.' The colonnades which 

 form covered passages on the east and west sides of 

 the court were also added by her. They are of rather 

 poor Tuscan Doric design : the columns, six on each 

 side with pilasters against the end-walls, are set at 

 somewhat wide intervals. The entablature is heavy : 

 in the middle on each side is the shield of Germain 

 impaling Berkeley. The friezes, instead of being 

 composed of triglyphs alternating with metopes, 

 have the awkward arrangement of a single triglyph 

 above each column. 



The buildings on either side of the court, at the 

 back of the colonnades, contain a number of rooms, 

 but nothing worthy of special remark : their date and 

 relation to the plan have been noticed already. On 

 the north side rises the principal front of the house, the 

 core of the wall being of the 14th century, but entirely 

 hidden by the Palladian casing added by Sir John 

 Germain after 1701. The name of the architect 

 whom he employed is not known, but the design is 

 so unlike the ordinary English work of the age that 

 he may have been a foreigner, probably a Frenchman. 

 The doorway, approached by a flight of steps, the 

 sides of which curve inwards as they ascend, is in the 

 middle of the fafade, and is flanked by Corinthian 

 columns supporting a pediment. This rather over- 

 whelming composition, which fiOs the whole height 

 of the front, is treated with much liveliness and 

 originality of detail : in the capitals figures of 

 hawks, in allusion to Sir John Germain's crest, 

 take the place of the conventional volutes. Above 

 the doorway is Sir John's shield, charged with 

 the escutcheon of Mordaunt. On either side the 

 wall is pierced by three tall windows, which light the 

 hall on the east and the dining-room on the west. 

 Each of the windows next the doorway is finished at 

 the top by curious scrolled ornaments : the rest have 

 pediments, one on each side round, and the other 

 triangular. There is no order between the windows, 

 but the angles are finished with flat pilasters. The 

 design as a whole is unorthodox and restless ; but 

 the general effect is sumptuous, and the omission of 

 pediments from the windows next the doorway gives 

 relief to the imposing central composition. The 



» Some of its hangings, representing chisical temples in the 

 Pompeian style, tre preserved in various parts of the house. 



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