FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 127 



Edgehill and Marston Moor, where he was 

 desperately wounded and rode from the field of 

 battle many miles to Norton, then through the 

 Hall and up the stairway, where the print of the 

 horse's hoof is still shown to this day. 



The exterior of the Manor House has but 

 little claim to architectural beauty, but it falls 

 well into its woodland surroundings of sycamores 

 and other trees of great size. 



On the northern side is the historic bowling- 

 green on which King Charles i. passed five 

 consecutive days in his favourite amusement 

 while waiting for supplies. 



Within the old oak hall, covered with ancestral 

 portraits, is the broad staircase of the legend, 

 ascending by the big mullioned window with 

 many coats - of - arms towards the panelled 

 King's Room, which was occupied by more than 

 one of the Royal Stuarts. 



Many generations of Grahams had come and 

 gone from the old house at Norton before the 

 time of the last Sir Belhngham, born in 1789 

 and for seventy years a Baronet. 



One point of special interest in connection 

 with Norton Conyers is, that many consider it 

 to be the original of '' Thornfield Hall '' in Jane 

 Eyre, that most fascinating of all the Bronte 

 works, though others lean to the belief that the 



