[ 56 J 



BUCKLING,. . 



NORFOLK, . . . 



THE SEAT OF THE 



MARQUIS OF LOTHIAN, K.T 



BUCKLING is a place of many-sided interest. We 

 cannot forget that it has been the home of several 

 notable figures in history. To look at the house, 

 or at the counterfeit presentments of it here, you 

 recognise it at once as a famous example of 

 architecture. You are no less apprised that it stands very high 

 as possessing one of the fairest gardens in the land. And you 

 see, too unlike some old places, where moats are choked 

 and weed-grown, where envious grass invades the pathways, 

 and where black, damp moss clings to mouldering balus- 

 trade and urn that this is a place which it is a pleasure 

 to maintain, where graceful minds have conceived new 

 beauties, and where loving hands labour pleasantly 

 at their garden toil. Let us endeavour, as it were, to 

 walk in the scented pathways, to linger in fragrant 

 bowers, to s:t where the blossoms are showering, to 

 explore the sylvan glades, and admire the noble trees of 

 Blickling. 



But it were a churlish thing not first to rest in 

 the house awhile. Its very frontal challenges us as we 

 knock. There are heraldic memorials of Hobarts, and 

 reminders of unfortunate B:>leyns. But before either 



Hobarts came or Boleyns went, there had been famous 

 men in the older house of Blickling. Here dwelt heroic, 

 hoary Erpingham 



"Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Krpinghaui : 

 A good soft pillow for that good white head 

 Were better than a churlish turf of France." 



not to dwell at Blickling for 

 Castle, some miles distant 

 from the threatening field of 



Then came, to own, if 

 his home was Caistor 

 Sir John Fastolfe, who, 

 Patay, 



" Before we met, or that a stroke was given, 

 Like to a trusty squire, did run away." 



It was the craven knight that sold Blickling to Sir Geoffrey 

 Boleyn, whose great-grand-daughter was the unfortunate 

 Anne. They say she was born at Blickling, but that it was at 

 Hever, in Kent, she cast the tendrils of her charms about the 

 fickle heart of the King. The Norfolk house of the Boleyns has 

 long been swept away, and Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief 

 Justice, to whom the place came, and whose portrait, in 

 judicial robes, with cap, tippet, and chain of SS, hangs in the 

 house, built the present Hall. 



Copyright. 



' Country Life.' 



THE WEST FRONT. 



