ONGAR HUNDRED 



THEYDON MOUNT 



In and after 141 2 Hill Hall descended along with 

 the main manor of Theydon Mount, and was some- 

 times styled a manor. The above account suggests that 

 Hill Hall may originally have formed the demesne of 

 the manor of Theydon Mount. From the i6th century 

 onwards the mansion of Hill Hall was the seat of the 

 lords of the manor of Theydon Mount. It remained so 

 until towards the end of the 19th century, when it was 

 for some time unoccupied. '3 From about 1900 to 

 1908 it was let to an eccentric who called himself the 

 Duke de Moto.^* Soon after 1908 Charles Hunter 

 became the tenant.'' Mrs. Charles Hunter left the 

 house in 1925 and in the same year it was bought by 

 Sir Robert Hudson.'* It was subsequently the resi- 

 dence of Lady Edward Hay, was later acquired by the 

 Prison Commissioners, and in 1952 was opened as an 

 open prison for women." 



When Sir Thomas Smyth acquired Theydon Mount 

 on his marriage to Sir John Hampden's widow there 

 were two houses there. These were known as Mount 

 Hall and Hill Hall,'* and probably represented a 

 survival from the time when the two manors were in 

 separate ownership. Mount Hall is thought to have 

 stood about 100 yds. north of the church and to have 

 survived as a farm-house until the 19th century." It 

 then disappeared during improvements to the south- 

 east corner of Hill Hall park.' The position of the 

 original Hill Hall is not known. The present brick 

 mansion, which stands on a commanding site about 

 450 yds. north-west of the church, was largely the 

 work of Sir Thomas Smyth himself. If in the first 

 instance he made additions to an existing medieval 

 structure, all trace of this has now vanished. It is true 

 that some features of the present Hill Hall are slightly 

 earlier in style than the rest of the house but these are 

 unhkely to date from before the middle of the i6th 

 century. Even at this period the use of brick in a richly 

 timbered area was an innovation. 



Evidence concerning the exact dates of Sir Thomas 

 Smyth's work at Hill Hall is conflicting. According to 

 Strype the shell of the house was finished in 1 568.2 Ju 

 Smyth's own diary (not used by Strype) the following 

 entries occur: 



1557 Montaulam aedificavi. 



1558 Aedificavi adhuc Montisaulam. 



1 568 Coepi aedificare fortius et splendidius partes 

 boreales et occidentales Montisaulae. 



1 569 Hoc anno perfeci.3 



It has been suggested that these entries may refer to 

 Mount Hall, and that Smyth did not start work on 

 Hill Hall until some years later.* Certainly much still 

 remained to be done at Hill Hall at Smyth's death in 

 1577, and he made provision in his will for the com- 

 pletion of the house. He left £20 to his chief architect' 

 Richard Kirby, to be paid when the building was tiled, 

 and j^io to his steward to oversee the workmen.* In 



" Kelly's Dir. Essex (iggs)- 

 «* Ibid. (1902); E.R.O., Sale Cal. A. 6b. 

 »5 Kelly's Dir. Essex (191 2). 

 9' E.R.O., Sale Cat. A. 6; E.A.T. N.s. 

 xix, 74. 



»' E.R. xliii, 117. Inf. from Min. of 

 Works. 

 " C2./S3/5. 

 »' See above, p. 276. 

 > Ibid. 



» J. Strype, Life of Sir TAos. Smytk 

 (orig. 1698; 1820 edn.), 173. 



3 j^rcheologia^ xxxviii, 119 (orig. B.M. 

 Add. MS. 325). 



* This is the view of Mrs. M. Dcwar 



August 1577 Philippa, Sir Thomas's widow, agreed 

 with his executors to allow them the materials from 

 'within the ground of Hill HaD or Mount Hall' to 

 make 150,000 bricks and 'sufficient wood and straw 

 for two years as shall suffice for the covering and 

 furnishing of the said new building'.^ Four years after 

 Smyth's death £800 had already been spent by his 

 executors and the house was still unfinished." It was 

 then expUcitly stated that 'some few years' before his 

 death Smyth had 'laid the plot of a fair and goodly 

 house of brick'.' At the time of his death Smyth had 

 had personal possessions at both Hill Hall and Mount 

 Hall.'o From 1554, when he married Philippa, until 

 at least 1557 he appears to have lived at Hill Hall, 

 while Thomas Luther lived at Mount Hall." In 

 several documents relating to Theydon Mount at this 

 period there is confusion of nomenclature between 

 Hill Hall and Mount Hall." On the whole, however, 

 it seems probable that the building of the present Hill 

 Hall was carried out in two stages, the first being finished 

 in 1569 and the second, more ambitious stage being 

 started some time later, during the last years of Sir 

 Thomas's life. 



The courtyard plan on which Hill Hall is built 

 follows the usual arrangement of the Tudor period, 

 but the special architectural interest of the house lies 

 in its early use of renaissance detail, in particular the 

 application of classical orders to the external walls. 

 These are carried out in plaster, intended to simulate 

 stone. The fact that much of the plaster was replaced 

 by cement in the 19th century has led some authorities 

 to suppose that the external orders were applied at that 

 time. '3 There is ample evidence, however, that they 

 were part of the original design. Sir Thomas Smyth 

 was one of a group of notable men who had been 

 associated with the Protector Somerset when old 

 Somerset House, probably the first building in the 

 country to use classical detail on an extensive scale, was 

 being constructed. The influence of Somerset House 

 is seen in the subsequent building activities of other 

 members of the group including Sir John Thynne and 

 William Cecil, later Lord Burghley.''' Sir William 

 Smyth's own interest in architecture is proved by the 

 existence in his library of several editions of Vitruvius." 

 The early renaissance style in this country owes more 

 to French than to Italian influence and Sir Thomas had 

 special opportunities of observing the architecture of 

 France during his embassies abroad. The details in the 

 courtyard at Hill Hall have been compared with those 

 at the chateau of Bournazel near Toulouse.'* Smyth 

 stayed at Toulouse in 1565 and again in I57i.'7 The 

 external columns at Hill Hall are known to have been 

 in existence in the 17th and i8th centuries and to 

 have been accepted then as the work of Sir Thomas 

 Smyth.18 



Another outstanding feature of Hill Hall is the set of 



who is now preparing a biography of Sir 

 Thomas Smyth. 



5 In the sense, then current, of a senior 

 artificer who sometimes, but not always, 

 made the original drawings for a building. 

 In this case it seems clear that the design 

 was by Sir Thomas Smyth himself. 

 ^ Strvpe, op. cit. 171. 

 7 E.R.O., D/DSh T25. 

 ' C78/124/1. 9 Ibid. 



10 C2 Eliz./Si7/43. 

 ■■ C21/S3/5. 



" e.g. C78/124/1, in which Hill Hall 

 is also referred to as Mount Hall. 

 " Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 235-6; 



H. Avray Tipping in Country Life, xli 

 (1917)- 



'♦ For the activities of these men in 

 Elizabeth's reign see John Summerson, 

 Architecture in Britain, 1530—1830, 17— 

 20. 



'5 Strype, op. cit. 274-81 (Catalogue of 

 Sir Thos. Smyth's library at Hill Hall, 

 1566). 



'* N. Pevsner, Bdgs. of England, Essex, 



354- 



" Strype, op. cit. 88, 100. 



'8 Ibid. 172; W. Watts, Seats of Nobility 

 and Gentry &fc., pi. 84 (engraving 1780 

 and descriptive note). 



279 



