78 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



generations of Parkers of Melford Hall, \vho gave their lives 

 for the country by land and sea. To this family belonged 

 Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, who was lost in the Cato in 

 1782; another Admiral, Sir Hyde Parker, Kt., and his sons, 

 Admiral Hyde Parker, C.B., and Lieutenant-General John 

 Boteler Parker, C.B. ; also Lieutenant Harry Parker of the 

 Coldstream Guards, killed while carrying the colours at 

 Talavera ; an J Captain Hyde Parker, R.N., who was killed while 

 storming a Russian battery at Sulina on the Danube in 1854. 



THE OLD PORCH. 



Many great seamen have come out of East Anglia, or had 

 their homes there, and among them not only Nelson himself, 

 but there, at Melford Hall, the distinguished Admiral upon 

 whose signal at Copenhagen he turned his famous or fabulous 

 "blind eye." 



Melford Hall, the home of this fighting race, has a 

 long and distinguished history. It stands on the site of a 

 favourite residence of the Abbots of St. Edmund's Abbey at 

 Bury. The manor, with probably about 2,000 acres of land-, 

 waa given to the Abbey by Earl Altric, in the reign of 



Edward the Confessor. Abbot Sampson, of whom Carlyle 

 writes, the most famous head of this wealthy and powerful 

 house, often resided there from 1182 to 1211. Probably the 

 old house was built of the half timber, half wattle and plaster, 

 which was the favourite material for building old houses in 

 Suffolk, brick being used for foundations and chimneys. It 

 had a moat on three sides of it, an ornamental feature altered 

 later to a semi-circle without reference to the plan of the new 

 house. It is mentioned in the writings of the late Sir Wil'iam 



Parker, from which the 

 historical facts which follow 

 are largely drawn, that the 

 Abbot used to enjoy the 

 pleasures of sport there at 

 second hand: "He did not 

 honte hisself, and he 

 favoured not that his rribnkes 

 shoulJe; but he lyked meche 

 to sytte in a stylle place in ye 

 Melford wooddes, and to see 

 ye Abbey dodges honte ye 

 stagges." The Abbots of St. 

 E.lmund's were mighty princes, 

 and well able to keep up the 

 state suitable to the highest 

 order of the Peers Spiritual. 



At the Dissolution the 

 revenue of the Abbey was 

 equal to ,250,000 of our 

 money. The last Abbot, who 

 was forced by King Henry 

 VIII. to surrender this splendid 

 trust, was a Melford man, John 

 de Melford. He did not long 

 survive the spjliation, dying 

 a few months later ; fortunate, 

 perhaps, not to be executed 

 for high treason, as were 

 the unhappy and equally 

 innocent Abbots of Colchester, 

 Reading, and Glastonbury. 

 After the demolition of the 

 monastery Melford Hall and 

 Manor were granted by the 

 King to Sir William Cordell, 

 a Melford man born, who 

 was Speaker of the House 

 of Commons in the reign of 

 Queen Mary, and Master of 

 the Rolls to her and Queen 

 Elizabeth, and also High 

 Steward of Ipswich. Sir 

 William was the builder of 

 the present Hall, whose fine 

 proportions and clean-cut, 

 clearly-thought-out plan place 

 it among the best of the 

 severer order of Tudor man- 

 sions in Suffolk. It has not 

 the elaboration of Hengrave, 

 nor the quaintness of Christ 

 Church at Ipswich, but for 

 general excellence and con- 

 venience of plan it might serve 

 as a model for a modern 

 builder to copy. The forecou: t 



has the usual E frontage. There are no less than six towers 

 of brick, rising from square bases into octagonal turrets, 

 capped by cupolas and vanes. Unfortunately, a later owner 

 of the mansion thought fit to remove all the stone mullions 

 of the windows on the south front, and to replace them by 

 sashes, which has weakened the effect of what was a 

 particularly fine facade. But the height of the wings and the 

 grouping of the towers here have a very dignified effect. 



The wings and rooms between the central towers are of 

 three storeys in height, the connecting central portion only two 



