80 



GARDENS OLD AND KFW, 



storeys. The east front, which is the entrance front of the 

 mansion, retains the old windows and fittings almost unaltered. 

 The porch, with its upper chamber, is of stone, with two tiers 

 of pilasters. On the ends of the wings are good stone- 

 mullioned windows of eight lights, and projecting from these 

 wings north and south large bays, that on the north front 

 having no less than forty-four lights. Not all of the old house 

 was pulled down. The cellars and foundations were used by 

 Sir William Cordell, and the ancient wooden porch, which dates 

 from the year 1515, was also retained. This is an extra- 

 ordinary and most interesting piece of work, purely mediosval 

 in spirit and design, and probably typical of the wooden 

 decorative work of the timber and plaster houses, very many 

 of which survive in Suffolk towns and villages, but few in the 

 country, where they were pulled down to make room for new 

 mansions, as at Melford Hall. The porch has a high pitched 

 roof with a finial and openwork front. The sides are boarded 

 in high enough to make a back to the benches on either side, 



chains, alle redy at one instante and in one plaice, with 

 1,500 serving men all on horseback, well and bravelie mounted 

 to receive the Queen's Highness into Suffolke. There was 

 such sumptuous feastings and bankets as seldom in anie part 

 of the world was there seen afore. The Master of the Rolles, 

 Sir William Cordell, was the first that began this greate 

 feasting at his house of Melforde, and did light such a candle 

 to the rest of the shire that they were gladde bountifullie and 

 franklie to follow the same example." 



Sir William Cordell died three years later, and left no 

 children. His niece and heiress married Sir John Savage, 

 whose descendants were created viscounts. Elizabeth 

 Viscountess Savage was created Countess Rivers on the 

 death of her father, Earl Rivers. She was a Catholic and a 

 staunch Royalist. Suffolk and Essex were Roundhead in 

 feeling and very hostile to the gentry in fact, the East 

 Anglian Roundheads showed far more animus and class feeling 

 than those of other parts of England during the rebellion. The 





THE GARDEN FOKECOURT. 



out with four open frames above, divided by carved uprights. 

 Boldly carved grotesque figures in the mala and female 

 costumes of the early Tudor period stand on corbels at 

 either side of the entrance, anJ act as bracketed supports to 

 the barge-board of the roof. A fine stained-glass figure of 

 Queen Elizabeth in one of her most m:igni(icently embroidered 

 and jewelled hooped dresses and ruff, with crown, sceptre, and 

 orb, and a triple necklace of large pearls, is probably an excel- 

 lent portrait of the Queen in her e.uly womanhood. It was 

 no affectation of loyalty or gratitude which caused this image 

 of the Sovereign to adorn the window at Melford Its owner 

 amassed the greater part of his fortune as her Master of ihe 

 Rolls, and she honoured him with a visit in which the host had 

 nothing to complain cf if he desired to show his Sovereign 

 the greatness of the wealth lie had amassed. When she 

 came to visit him in 1578 "there were 200 young ge. tie- 

 men clad tie all in whyte velwet, and 300 of the graver 

 sort apparalled in black velwet co.its, and with ("air 



mob sacked the houses of the nobility and gentlemen as 

 wantonly as did the French peasants those of the Seigneurs 

 in the Revolution. A rabble set out from Colchester, accom- 

 panied by the regular Train Band, and first sacked another 

 house of Lady Rivers (St. Osyth), and then came to plunder 

 Melford and seixe her person. They stole all they could lay 

 hands on, destroyed the furniture, killed the deer, gutted the 

 rectory, stole the rector's horses, broke down the cross on 

 the green, tore up the brasses in the church, and behaved 

 generally like the set of unmitigated blackguards which they 

 undoubtedly were. 



All this time the Colchester Train Band with their 

 officers were actually billeted in the long gallery of the 

 Hall, and looked on. Lady Rivers was ruined by fines and 

 confiscations, and died in 1650, but before Ivjr death sold the 

 Hall to another representative of its first builder's family, Sir 

 Robert Cordell, who was created the first baronet He was 

 member for Sudbury and High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1653. 



