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HESLINGTON HALL, 



YORK, .... 



THE SEAT OP ... 



LORD DERAMORE. 



GARDENS 

 OLD-&NEW 



T> HOSE who have examined the long s c nes ot pictures 

 of our must famous country homes which these 

 ntain, will I'm I no difficulty in assigning 

 the Yorkshire hmis.- of Heslington to the age to which 

 it belongs. They will know that it coul.1 have Iven 

 built in no other perio.1 than the spaci.ui- ti:n ot lih/abeth and 

 James. The lofty frontage and glorious wmJows. the plan 

 upon which the house is built, and the gardens that neighbour 

 it. all bespeak the century which saw a change so vast 



ight in tlu- structure of our domestic life. The increase nf 

 wealth, of refinement, and of leisure, which marked the 

 advance of the time, brought with it a striking transformation, 

 proclaimed in the extinction of the feudal character of the 

 nobles. The buttressed walls and frowning battlements 

 disappeared, and were replaced by th pomp and I'ghter grace 



;Ji places as Knole and Longleat. Burleigh and Hatfield, 

 Oiarlecote and Audley bnd. As (ireen s.iys, we still ga/e 

 with pleasure on their picturesque gables, their fretted fronts, 

 their turrets and fanciful vanes, their castellated gateways, 

 the jutting oriels from which the great noble looked on the new 

 Italian garden, on its stately terraces and broad flights of steps, 

 its vases and fountains, its quaint mazes, its formal walks, 

 its lines of yews cut into grotesque shapes in rivalry of the 

 cypress avenues of the South. 



In the bold and characteristic front of Heslington Hall 



we discern the tenures that mark the clunge. The many 

 windo.vs suggest that prodigal enjoyment it li^lit an.! >uiislnne 

 which was a m.irk .if the temp.-r of the .ige, but th.- I ills oiiel 

 winjow throws a flooj of light into a gieat hall legitimUe 

 descendant "t those huge structures in which the eaiher 

 nobles had kept house with their dependents. The l.li/abethan 

 gentleman and his family had retired to their withdrawing- 

 room, but the hall still remained, as l.ord H.ICOII s.nd, " so full 

 of gla>s that we cannot tell where to cmne to Iv out ot the 

 sun or the cold." Such halls .is this exist at Main) ton Court 

 and Haddon, and in mans 1 another house ,<\ the tune. The 

 plan of Heslington is that of the letter I:, rightly <-i wr-nigh- 

 asvrilvd to adulation of Ouern l:li/abeth. although its porch 

 has not tlu- b ild projection which is found in most of the great 

 dwellings of the time. The proud distinction of country gentle- 

 men was to recei\e Her Majesty in their h- uses when she 

 made her many progresses through the kn gdom, and aim pst 

 beyond number are the mansions in wlrth she s. .joined. 

 Heslington is associated with her in a singu'.ar and unfamiliar 

 way, a way so unusual, indeed, that wv know n >t what 

 measure of credence to give to the asM-itions ot the chroni 1 r. 

 The story runs that it was intended in some manner as .1 

 thank-offering of accommodation for her glory, and that its 

 suites of rooms were specially designed for her reception. 

 However this may have been, we may certainly aver that 



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THE YEWS FROM GARDEN-HOUSE. 





