THE HOUSE OF QODOLPHIN. 413 



Turning now to the architectural features of the house 

 itself, we find that but a small part of the original building 

 remains for our examination. The greater portion of the old 

 house has been entirely destroyed, and even that part left 

 standing has been much altered. The present building is 

 quadrangular in form. It consists of a north front, containing 

 a corridor and suite of rooms supported upon a granite colonnade, 

 which is divided along its length by a plain wall with an orna- 

 mental gateway leading into the central quadrangle. The sides 

 of the quadrangle are formed by two wings at right angles to 

 the front. These wings are connected at the back, and the 

 quadrangle is completed by a solitary wall, pierced by a carved 

 door-way, once the approach to the chief apartments, and by 

 large mullioned windows, through the glassless lights of which 

 the eye looks out over the vacant space where the old house once 

 stood. Tradition says that fifty rooms were taken down to make 

 that piece of farm-yard. 



The earliest known drawing of the house, according to Mr. 

 H. MicheU Whitley, occurs in a chart belonging to the early part 

 of Henry VIII' s reign, now preserved in the British Museum. 

 This drawing, of which he gives a sketch (R. I. 0. Journal, 

 Sept., 1889) which I reproduce in Fig. 1, represents a plain two- 

 storied building with a central door, flanked at each end by a 

 more lofty embattled tower. Mr. Whitley considers that parts 

 of this building may yet be found among the oldest portions of 

 the present house. If any such parts do still exist they would 

 be, as he surmises, in the present south wall, which is certainly 

 one of the oldest parts yet standing. On this view the south 

 wall would represent the face of the original two-storied building. 

 There seems little doubt that this wall was once the face of the 

 main building, and it has the appearance of belonging to Tudor 

 times ; but it bears so little resemblance to the features of the 

 sketch that I am very loth to identify them. Moreover this south 

 wall is not much, if at all, earlier than portions of the east wing 

 including the dining-hall, of which no trace is shown in the 

 sketch. I think it more probable that this early chart, which 

 shows an already completed house, refers to a smaller pre-Tudor 

 building ; and that about the middle of the XVIth century. Sir 

 William Godolphin, the hero of Boulogne, finding either that his 



