[ H9 1 



COM1 TON WYNYATES, 



WARWICKSHIRE, 



THE SCAT Or THE 



MARQUESS OF NORTHAMPTON. 



1'HIN four or five miles 

 or the position where 

 the King established 

 himself on the eventful day of the b.ittk- ot i-dgehill, and 

 below the slopes of the hills, hidden, indeed, in a sylvan 

 hollow, stands one of the must beautiful Tudor houses in 

 England. Warwickshire is very rich in cattle- and h 



former time, but it has nothing to surpass this admirable 

 quadrangular house of the Marquess of Northampton. We 

 lould not wi-h for a better presentment of the domestic life of 

 our Tudor ancestors than is found in that wondrous structure, 

 with its towers, embattlements, and mullioned and enriched 

 windows, its porch and its timbered gables, its turrets and 

 .1 chimneys, its chequered brickwork and its old-world 

 pictures queness. England is fortunate, indeed, that it still 



: - such places, and Compton \V\n\ati-s is .ioubly 



fortunate in that it is pri/ed and treasuu-,1 by its noble owm-r 

 and maint.mud in as high a st.tte as i-ver it knew <: yore. 

 I he ino.it. indeed, which u.is its outer guard, lias ^uu- in part, 

 and now the visitor no longer t.irrirs to p.irh-y with tli- 

 watchman <n the g.it --house tower. The sp> hole is then-, 

 through which he looked out to le.irn who the strangi r might 



:id the twisted stairway by wl ich he ascended to t.iU.- .1 

 larger survey. The oaken door is there also, Iv.irmg yd in 

 its si-ams marks of the impotent fury of some who endeavoured 

 to make turbulent entry th.it way. 



Originally the house was larger than it is now, and some 

 evidences of its former extent still remain. Its buildings 

 surround a quadrangular space 57(1. across. Over the arch 

 of the entrance, as may be sei-n in our picture, are the aims 



THE ANCIENT GATEWAY. 



