GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



Fitz Alured the manor of Wnrburton, from which 

 his descendants were to take their name. It was his 

 son, Sir Geoffrey or Galfrid de Dutton, who acquired 

 the manor ot Aston with Arley. Now this same 

 Geoffrey was a crusading knight, who did valiant 

 deeds against the Paynim, and in particular vanquished 

 a Saracen in battle, as is recorded by a chronicler in 

 the Harleian MSS. Lawrence Bostocke, 1572 

 wherein it is said that the victorious knight began 

 thereafter to seal with the Saracen's head, which is 

 still the crest of the Warburtons. Four other 

 Geoffreys followed, and then came in the name of Piers 

 or Peter, which has ever since remained with the 

 family. Of these, Wise Piers, as he was called, who 

 died in 1495, was tne builder, about 1469, of the first 



Halton, and High Sheriff of Cheshire, and who 

 died in the fifteenth year of Henry VIII., and after 

 him several Peters (or Piers) and Geoffreys. Sir 

 George Warburton, created a baronet in 1660, suc- 

 ceeded his brother in the possession of Warburton 

 and Arley in 1641, and married a daughter of 

 Middleton of Chirk. The ancient house, though 

 retaining its mediaeval style in his days, probably 

 had later modifications to suit the changing taste, and 

 the time came when the moat was filled up and the 

 stout drawbridge no longer held aloof the stranger, 

 with whom the warder had parleyed from the tower. 

 It was described by one Webb, in 1621, with high 

 encomium, as " that beautiful house of Arley that 

 doth, as it well may, show itself to beholders afarre 



ILEX AND YEW. 



Arley Hall of which there is definite record, though 

 a deer park and an earlier dwelling seem to have 

 existed as early as 1346. Wise Piers's house was 

 quadrangular, standing within a moat, doubtless 

 approached by a drawbridge, and was built upon a 

 base of stone, all of timber, after the common fashion 

 of building in those parts. Such houses as Speke, 

 which is included in this volume, suggest to 

 us its exact type, with its enriched timber-work, 

 carved and panelled, and filled in with plaster, and 

 its great bays, and arcaded cloister to grace the 

 courtyard. Here dwelt the builder's descendants, 

 all men of note and fame in the shire his son, 

 Sir John Warburton of .Warburton and Arley, who 

 was a knight of the body to Henry VII., Sheriff of 



oft, as a place to be regarded the famous seat of 

 Warburtons, by succession of many renowned knights 

 of great worth and estimation." We may, moreover, 

 infer something as to its sturdy character from the 

 ancient remaining barn, built with massive oaken 

 beams, or rather trees, springing from the ground 

 and meeting above at the ridge of the roof, and thus 

 spanning the interior with a series of pointed arches, 

 the sides being filled in with slabs of split oak, seamed 

 and scarred with age. It is coeval with the ancient 

 house. 



Here continued to reside successive baronets 

 Sir Peter Warburton, Sheriff of Cheshire in 1689; 

 Sir George, who represented his county in four 

 Parliaments, 1702-22 ; and another Sir Peter, who, 



