152 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 





Copyright. 



A PERGOLA. 



"Ciiuutry Li/c.' 



both, to catch the spirit of the place in thinking of its 

 history, and to iv>te the characters with which the garden i.; 

 informed. 



The family of De Haut, or Fitz Haut, is said, like many 

 otliers, to have come over with the Conqueror, and one of 

 its members had a fortified house at Ightham in the time of 

 Henry II. The oldest parts of the existing house go back to 





Copyright. 



THE LAWN AND ORNAMENTAL TKEES. 



Edvv.irJ II. or a little earlier, but the greater portion was 

 rebu It in the reign of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and a good 

 deal of excellent timber work' was added in the times of 

 L-lizabeth and James, with the result that, in its varied features 

 of weather-worn stone and picturesque timber, rising from a 

 moat, Ightham is one of the quaintest piles of domestic 

 architecture imaginable. One Rich.irJ Fitz Haut of Ightham 



forfeited his heritage and 

 lost his head at Pontefract 

 for joining Buckingham in 

 favour of Richmond, where- 

 upon the Kentish house was 

 granted to Robert Bracken- 

 bury, Lieutenant of the 

 Tower. But Bracken bury 

 fell at Btsworth, and when 

 Richmond ascended the throne 

 Edward Haut, son of the 

 dispossessed squire, was 

 installed in possession of the 

 Mote. At this time the tower 

 was raised and the west 

 side rebuilt. 



In 1520 the house was 

 sold to Sir Richard Clement, 

 of Milton, in Northampton- 

 shire. It afterwards passed 

 to Sir Christopher Alleyn, 

 Lord Mayor of London, and in 

 1590 was sold to Sir William 

 Selby, of Branxton, in 

 Northumberland, Warden of 

 the Marches and Governor of 

 Berwick-on- Tweed, a veteran 

 of the Low Countries, whose 

 descendants continued genera- 

 tion after generation at the 

 Mote. The date of the hall 



'Ccunlrr T.tfe." 



