54 



GARDENS OLD AND NF.W. 



THE BRIDGE AND MOAT FROM THE NORTH-WEST. 



carried on there at times until it was completed in 

 1 605, and now, after 300 years, it is nearly as perfect 

 as it was then, and, thanks to the family of the 

 present owner, we may hope it will remain so for 

 some centuries more. A more ancient Hall (of 

 stone) had stood here, and provided ample material 

 for the foundations and chimney-stacks of the 

 present building, which was erected entirely of oak, 

 so solid and so well pegged that it stands to-day (save 

 for picturesque weathering and warping) almost, in the 

 condition in which it left the builder's hands. 



The moat has long been drained, but the stone 

 bridge remains, a marvel of picturesqueness, and all 



THE .\OR7H-WEST FACADE. 



the details of the stonework, as of the timber, are 

 extremely good and sometimes curious. In the great 

 plain of Lancashire the houses of the gentry in the 

 sixteenth century were rendered safe more often by 

 wet moats than by walls or towers. The quadrangular 

 structure sheltering a courtyard and surrounded by a 

 deep moat was the highest type of houses of this 

 class. Such were Clayton, Wardley, Ordsall, Samles- 

 bury, Moreton and other old halls. The form of 

 these was more stately and complete than the 

 E-shaped or irregularly-built blocks, and a better 

 example of the class could not be found than Speke. 

 The house stands in a great curve of the Mersey, 

 .--,, *.. surrounded by woods, 

 through which an avenue 

 leads to the private land- 

 ing-place. The principal 

 approach, after leaving 

 Garston, runs through a 

 level agricultural country, 

 dotted with well - kept 

 homesteads, and enters 

 the demesne through 

 shrubs and trees which 

 disclose a charming view 

 of the north-east front of 

 the house. Turning now 

 to the history of the place, 

 we read in Domesday 

 Book: "Uctred held Spec. 

 There are ii carucates of 

 land. It was worth Ixiv. 

 pence." From which we 

 gather that only forty 

 acres of the land were 

 arable and the rest forest 



