132 



GARDENS OLD AND NFW. 



Catesby was one of those who had suffered very severely 

 under the penal laws in the time of James. Driven to 

 desperation, after a licentious youth, he turned with fervid 

 zeal to the faith he had foresworn, and in sinister conditions 

 conceived that monstrous plot which it is difficult to imagine 

 how any human mind could have harboured the plan of 

 blowing up the Parliament House, and of involving in common 

 destruction the King, Lords, and Commons who had framed 

 and executed the penal laws. It does not appear that this 

 wild conspiracy took shape within the walls of Chastleton 

 certainly not in the existing house for Catesby had sold the 

 estate to Walter Jones for .4,000 in 1602, and his own house 

 may not have been on the same spot. It is said that he 

 designed the purchase-money for the raising of a troop of 

 horse in aid of Philip of Spain, who contemplated another 

 attack upon England, and it is not at all unlikely that some 

 of the money was expended in furthering the sinister scheme 

 against the King, LorJs, and Commons. 



The existing house was built by the new possessor, a 

 substantial woollen merchant of Witney, of whom it is related 



we may see. The builder ha.l two so s, Arthur and Henry. 

 The latter was a gentleman learned in the law, whose bedroom 

 is still called "the Doctor's Chamber," because it was appro- 

 printed to his use. Arthur threw in his lot with the King, and 

 followed the standard of Charles through the varying fortunes 

 of the war, but, after that monarch's execution, lived quietly 

 at Chastleton until 1651. Then o.ice more he took arms in the 

 cause of Charles's son, and appears to have been with him on 

 the fatal field of Worcester. 



Legends or histories record his home-coming. Mistress 

 Jones, who was daughter of a London merchant, lying awake 

 at night full of fears for her husband, heard the footsteps 

 of a weary horse entering the stable-yard. Hastily dressing, 

 she stole downstairs, and admitted her husband, all breath'ess 

 from his flight, who sank it, to a chair, and, asking for food and 

 wine, told the melancholy tale. Even while he was telling 

 it, the fearful ears of his wife heard the hoofs of other horses 

 approaching. Strangers were coming Roundheads in pursu'.t 

 of the fugitives but the weary man, altogether spent, had 

 no strength to fly. He sought refuge therefore in a serret 



THE ELEPHAM AND HLk YOUNG. 



that he came from the old line of Jones of Grismont, county 

 Glamorgan, whose pedigree stretches back to legendary Brute, 

 and through the mists of ages even to King Priam, in those 

 times when Zeus from the Heights of Olympus directed the 

 armies of Greeks and Trojans upon the plains of Ilium. The 

 judicious may perhaps refrain from investigating this heroic 

 genealogy, but will discover in the latter chain that he family 

 inter-married with Tudor, Herbert, and many other noble 

 houses, and gave many a son who fo.ight under the Red 

 hragon of Wales. For us the interest of Walter Jones is 

 that he was the builder of the imposing house depicted. He 

 married Eleanor Pope, maid of honour to Queen Elixabeth, 

 whose father was Henry Pope, the Queen's jeweller, and her 

 uncle Sir Thomas Pope of Wroxton. It is believed, upon the 

 faith of tradition, that Mr. Jones was his own architect, and, 

 if that be so, he designed well and built substantially. The 

 In HIM- was begun in 1603, and appears to have been finished 

 about 1614. 



The estate at the time was not so larg j as now, and the 

 new mansion stood at one end <J it, adjacent to the church, as 



chamber, which is still shown, while his wife admitted the 

 sour-visaged pursuers. They would not credit her report 

 that she had in the house none but her f. eble father-in-law, 

 her children, and her maid. The tired horse in the stable had 

 told another tale, and they sought through the house, sounding 

 the walls and floors with their pikes and muskets. Failing, 

 however, to discover the secret hiding-p'.ace, they expressed 

 their intention of supping in the lady's chamber, from which 

 it was approached. With a tremMing hand but an alert mind 

 did Mistress Jones arouse her maids and set about the pre- 

 paration of the meal. Into the wine some drowsy drug was 

 infused -poppy or mandragora perhaps brewing thus a potion 

 that should steal away the Roundheads' brains and rob them 

 of "the pith and marrow of their attribute." Lustily they 

 enjoyed the heavy-headed revel, until, one by one, sleep 

 overcame them all ; whereupon their hostess crept in and 

 released her husband, who straightway on the captain's horse 

 made good his escape. Loud were the imprecations of the 

 del.ided Puritans on the muzzy -headed u orn when, with aching 

 pates, ilK-y rose from the night's carouse to find the quarry flown. 



