T 



ftENTWELL 

 . . . HALL, 



SUFFOLK. 





. 



Till: RESIDENCE . . 



I 







} Of 



MR. H. TURTON NORTON. 



. 



, 



KENTWKI.L HALL, at Long Melford, in Suffolk, is 

 just such a house as we should expect to find in 

 the lev;-l land "t i lij. There are many such 



antique mansions of red brick, with mullmnol 

 windows, buttresses, turrets, and cupolas, in that 

 region, much enriched in their character, and fine t\ p< 

 the old English dwelling-place. Some are illustrated in 

 Kentwell Hall r- tains far more of its original 

 character than most other Tudor houses, and it has be n little 

 altered since it was built, though in iH.>6 a fire occurred in 

 which the dining-room was burnt, and devastation e.\ tended 

 through to the g.irden side. Originally it was one of those 

 places made defensive by art, though built at a time when tin- 

 need of defence had mostly gone, and its ir.oat remains complete 

 and perfect, access to the house being gained at two points by 

 quaint brick t The approach is through a notable lime 



venue, planted by Mr. Thomas R -binson in the year 1678, 

 all the trees in which appear to have been pollarded, and no 

 Stranger who comes to Kentwell on a summer's day. when 

 the long avenue, now forming a natural arch of foliage, is 

 flecked with light and shade, can withhold aJmiration when he 

 emerges to discover the manifold beauties of Kentwell H'l. 



I "r our immediate purpose, looking for the garden 

 atf.u lions of tlu- pl.Ke. (vrlups the chief interest lies In the 

 nio.it. the tine tree-, and the level lawns. | he preseme of 

 water is alw : " . and when it is found in an 



anck-nt mo.it it appeals to the irnagir dl .is to the 



ense, while it recalls the day when t' e warder would 

 hold parley wrh the stranger across tin- wah-r-diich. Its ; 

 surface h.is ; i singular value in its immediate neighbourhood t" 

 the house and the garden, for it imports .1 p.iuh "t sky. .is it 

 were, into the fore^mund, and reflects the picturesque gables 

 and the line trees and garden things that grow therein'. A 

 moat might doubtless he treatt-.l in many ways. It might be 

 margined by a terrace ; or it might be bordered by flowery 

 mea.ls ; or, aga'ii, as at Kentwell. its edges might be grass 

 slopes and picturesque walls of buttressed brick. This Suffolk 

 moat f ivours the growth of water-loving plants and trees, and 

 the walls that flank it are delicious in h.ie and character. Hu- 

 lk h ns cli-a\ e to them, giving them patches ..( k ool and glowing 



ir, and ivy and climbing plants 1 them. Th 



bribes are simple, but beautiful, with their quaint art. lies 

 doubled by the silver surface. Valuable, there'un -. in tin- 

 garden is the ancient moat Within it lies a well-kept ^p i 



THE SOUTH-WtSl ASl'tCJ. 



