FAULKBOURNE HALL, 



ESSEX. 



THI-lvI-' il every sign that Ksscx is becoming 

 much better known than it used to IK- fifty 

 years ago. It lies so near to London that 

 few people when seeking a home in the 

 country thought of settling so near to the great city. 

 Their fancy overleaped IV-M-\, and camcJ them 

 further afield. Also, though very interesting to the 

 naturalist, yachtsman and wildfowlcr, the I-'-MA l/oast, 

 with its limitless levels of mud-flats and marsh, and 

 its wide tidal estuaries, was mainly i|iiitc unsuitcd for 

 what arc known as "seaside resorts." Si railways 

 were not carried down to the shore, and the seafront 

 between the mouth of the Thames estuary and the 

 Naze was almost un visited. The result is that now, 

 when motor-cars arc opening up out-of-the-way places, 

 and the charm of neighbourhoods, which have never 

 been disturbed in their quiet lives for centuries, is 

 more than ever appreciated, the beauty of this 

 rich old kingdom of the Last >a\on is becoming 

 recognised, and the exceeding number of large woods 

 and fine parks in the county is becoming known, 

 woods mean, as a rule, large properties, and 



parks .uo.mpany great houses; and of these 

 has, perhaps, more examples, dating from the 

 sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, than 

 any shire of Kngland, Suffolk not except ed. In the 

 days Df Tudors ami Stuarts it was one of the favourite 

 district! for building mansions and ict|uiring estates. 

 If the reason IK- sought, it is mainly in be found, in 

 all likelihood, in the desire to jvsses- I.uul which would 

 grow the largest possible amount of wheat to the .lire. 

 This the I'.ssex land would do, ami it was regarded 

 by the courtiers of Kli/abeth and by the merchants of 

 James I.'s prosperous reign as .1 kind of "gilt-edged 

 security." 



As soon as they obtained the land they In-gan 

 to build. Others, who had inherited I'.ssex estates, 

 were not slow to follow their example. The 

 splendid brick quadrangle of dosfield, the gables 

 and gateways of lx>rd I'etre's house at Jugate-stone, 

 Marks Hall, built by the Honywoods, Heron Hall, 

 by the Tyrells, Old Hattield Priory, (i races, built by 

 Sir Henry Mildmay at Little Baddow, Danbury 

 Place, Spams Hall, and Moyns Park, as well as 



THE R ITCHES GARDES 



