150 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



of rough stone work." In Neale's "Views of Seats," 

 published in 1828, ti.e gables are not shown, the projecting 

 bays having then been given segmental tops and plain sash 

 windows. Happily, since that time the ho :se has been well 

 restored, and on the south side fine bay windows have been 

 added in admirable keeping with the old. 



Sir Cecil Bisshopp, the eighth baronet, who was con- 

 cerned in modernising the house, succeeded in establishing 

 his claim to the ancient barony of Zouche of Haryingworth, 

 in 1815. William de la Zouche, lord of that place, was 

 summoned to Parliament as a Baron, 1308-14, and his honours 

 rested with his descendants, of whom five immediately 

 following bore his name of William. John, the seventh 

 baron, was attainted in 1485, but his attainder was reversed, 



THE HOUSE AND CHl'RCH. 



and the barony of Zouche, to which that of St, Maur had been 

 adJed, continued with his descenJants until it became abeyant 

 between his two daughters, and so remained until Sir Cecil 

 Bisshopp, sixth in descent from the elder daughter, Elizabeth, 

 succeeded, as we have said, in establishing his claim to the 

 title. 



At his death it again became abeyant between two 

 daughters, but a year later the abeyance was terminated 

 in favour of the elder of them, who had married the Hon. 

 Robert Curzon, M P. This lady was succeeded in the title 

 by her son, Robert Curzon, the fourteenth baron, father of 

 the present Lord Zouche, in 1870. The late Lord Zouche was 

 a nobleman of fine taste, who richly stored his house with 

 precious things. He made a great collection of early armour, 

 and the display at Parham was almost unrivalled, while the 

 gold and silver plate and ivory carvings were very beautiful, 

 and the library was rich in ancient manuscripts. Lord Zouche, 

 whose book, " The Monasteries of the Levant," is well 

 known, brought much armour from the East, some of it from 

 the church of St. Irene at Constantinople, which had been 

 worn by the defenders of the Pala;ologi against the Turks in 

 1452. The collection also includes three complete suits of 

 armour of ufo, 1250, and 1350, and complete suits of Gothic 

 armour, with pointed toes, prior to 1452, as well as many 

 helmets and several cross-hiked swords. Lord Curzon 

 described his collection in the Archaeological Journal, XXII., 

 1865. Most of the precious manuscripts from the library have 

 1 veil removed to the British Museum. In the hands of tlu 

 fourteenth baron, the great house at Parham was well cared 

 for, and our illustrations will show that the place is maintained 

 in perfect state and order. 



We shall leave our pictures to tell the story of the 

 beautiful gardens. They have a simple, natural character, 

 with some quaint features, like the sundial which tells the 

 fleeting hours upon brass, while the pillar casts its shadow 

 upon the well-grown dial of box which surrounds it. There 

 are broad lawns on the south side, between the house and the 

 old church, and the trees are everywhere magnificent. The 



avenue and the old dovecote make a delightful picture, and the 

 kitchen garden is florally adorned. There are quaint gate- 

 posts and iron gates, and pathways in sun and shade, where 

 it is pleasant to linger, and everywhere is a lavish array 

 of flowers. 



The park is famous among the many beautiful parks of 

 Sussex, and has interests that are quite its own. Knox, 

 in his "Ornithological Ramble in Sussex," rightly speaks 

 of it as a forest-like park, or rather chase, with its 

 thickets of birch and whitethorn, and its wide-branched 

 elms and oaks, the latter especially grand and picturesque. 

 On every side it is a realm of sylvan beauty, and a 

 background of green hill is seen here and there between 

 the splendid masses of foliage. In the deer park a pond 



called Wood Mill Pond 

 reflects a charming land- 

 scape, and as we traverse 

 the open expanses remains 

 of a considerable village 

 are found. Adjoining the 

 deer park is a large 

 wood, called the North 

 Park, where the pines and 

 spruce firs are glorious. 

 Knox speaks with enthusiasm 

 of the most interesting 

 heronry there. " Advancing 

 with the utmost caution, 

 the visitor may perhaps 

 invade the colony without 

 disturbing them, and hear 

 the indescribable, half- 

 hissing sound uttered by the 



\ : , .:,. :,i !;;. .,. ' 



"^ : 3f being fed. The slightest 



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^* noise, however, even the 



snapping of a stick, will send 

 the parent birds off at 



once. The herons assemble early in February, and then set 

 about repa ring their nests, but the trees are never entirely 

 deserted during the winter months, a few birds, probably some 

 of the more backward of the preceding season, roosting among 

 their boughs every night." The herons begin laying early in 

 March, and from the time the young birds are hatched until 

 late in the summer the parent birds forage for them day and 

 night. Their food consists of fish, and of reptiles anJ insects, 

 which their lengthened tarsi and acute serrated bills enable 

 them to seize in the shallow waters of the rivers, or in lakes 

 or marshes which are their haunt. The history of the 

 heronry at Parham is curious. The ancestors of the birds 

 were brought originally, it is believed, to Penshurst by the 

 steward of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, from Coity 

 Castle in South Wales, and at Penshurst the herons remained 

 until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when, some 

 of their nesting trees being cut down, they resented the 

 intrusion, and migrated to Michelgrove, some fifty miles south- 

 west of Penshurst, and six or seven south of Parham. The 

 proprietor at Michelgrove having cut some of his trees, the 

 birds migrated again, and established themselves at Parham in 

 1826. Some of them were alarmed once more by the trees 

 there being pruned, and they then betook themselves to 

 Arundel, about six miles away, but came back after a while, 

 and increased and multiplied, being thereafter disturbed only 

 by the thieving rooks. The heronry adds much inte:est to 

 the ferny deeps and the glorious old oaks, pines, and firs of 

 Parham Park. 



The house, according to a common custom, stands near 

 the church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, and is interesting 

 and picturesque, and has a curious leaden font dating from 

 1351. Beyond the sacred edifice the hill breaks suddenly into 

 a declivity, giving a wide prospect over the plain, in a manner 

 quite characteristic of this part of Sussex. The valley of the 

 Arun opens, as it approaches the sea, into wide and level 

 expanses, and thus from all the hills thereabout these great 

 views are disclosed. It is a beautiful and attractive country 

 in which Parham Park lies. 



