254 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



THE ASCENT TO THE BOWLING GREbN. 



horseman, and they s.iy, dashing in frenxL-d career across the 

 park, his steed fell in the headlong course, an I was killed with 

 his rider on a spot still known as " Darell's L cap." 



Such is tl-e story told with bated breath at Littlecote, 

 lending a strange interest to the old house and the grounds 

 in which these scenes were enacted. The place, in all 

 appropriateness, has its haunted room, and the curious will like 

 to know that it is the chamber with the open window in our 

 picture of the north front and bow ing green. With the 

 Pophams the house long remained, and happily it is still in 

 their possession. The judge's only son was Sir Fr.ir.cis 

 Po p h a m , a 

 soldier and poli- 

 tician of l.t ; gio'.;s 

 temperament, 

 who died in 1644. 

 His son John had 

 tlied before him, 

 and was buried 

 with great pomp 

 at Littlecnte in 

 1638. Alex- 

 ander, the second 



son, succeeded 

 at Little cote, 

 and, after siding 

 with Parliament 

 in the Civil War, 

 entertained 

 Charles II. at 

 his house in 

 1663. The buff 

 jerkins of the 

 day still harg 

 in the hall. 

 The third son of T "K SOUIHEkN 



Sir Francis was Sir Edward Popham, a distinguished admiral 

 and general, \vho was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1651. 

 It is unnecessary, however, to follow the generations 

 of the Pophams of Littlecote. The present owner is descended 

 in the female line from Alexander Popham, just mentioned. 

 Macaulay records that William of Orange, after his con- 

 ference with the Commissioners of James at Hungerford, 

 December 8th, 1638, retired to Littlecote, where a great 

 assemblage met him. He occupied the rooms of which the 

 windows, shown in the picture of the north-west corner 

 of the garden, look out along that lovely grass walk. The 



pre c ent owner is 

 Mr. Francis 

 William Ley- 

 bjrne - Popham, 

 eldest son of the 

 late Mr. Francis 

 Leyborne - Pop- 

 ham, D.L., J. P., 

 of Littlecote, who 

 died in 1880. Mr. 

 Leyborne - Pop- 

 ham married, in 

 1890, Maud 

 Isabel, daughter 

 of the late Mr. 

 Henry Howard, 

 of Greystoke 

 Castle, Cum- 

 berland. For 

 some years 

 Littlecote has 

 been let, and Mr. 

 Leopold Hirsch 

 is the present 

 tenant. 



FORECOURT. 



