172 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



August 29, 1872. 



tn tii3 evening we had a great many visitors, who knew 

 where I had gone, and came round to see what success I had 

 met with. It does not take much to get up an excitement in 

 these small places. I exhibited my flower with some pride, 

 and was told that it was of a very rare kind, hut smaller than 

 the others, There are, as nearly as I can ascertain, three kinds. 

 1, Yellow with black centre, common and very large; 2, rose- 

 coloured, common and but little smaller; and 3, the white 



with red centre, which is like mine. I find they do not keep 

 long. Mine this morning had lost the purity of its white 

 leaves, and now exhibits quite a withered and dilapidated 

 appearance ; but, as it dries, red veins are making their 

 appearance in tho white leaves. 



The size of mine when fully open was just about as large 

 round as a large dinner-plate, and the stem the thickness of 

 my thumb. — (American Gardener's Monthly.) 



SHUGBOEOUGH HALL, 

 The Seat of the Earl of Lichfield. 



It is much to be regretted that several of the finest of our 

 country mansions are placed so low when more favourable 

 sites are close at hand ; as examples I may name Trentham in 



Staffordshire, Port Eliot in Cornwall, Cobham Hall in Kent, 

 and the subject of the present notes ; for although there is 

 some rising ground at but a short distance from the mansion. 



Shugboroug li Hall. 



it has not been made use of, except to erect a monument to 

 the founder of the noble house who now owns it. 



Shugborough Hall, the line seat of the Earl of Lichfield, is 

 situated on an extensive plain, through which the Trent flows 

 in its serpentine course through the county of Stafford, and at 

 this point not far from the centre of it. 



There has been a lordly mansion here from Anglo-Saxon 

 times, and the name then and since has been variously spelt 

 Sowborough, Shutborough, and Shugborough. When Erdes- 

 wick wrote, " There were remaining the ruins of a goodly house, 

 some time the Bishop's (of Lichfield and Coventry), and since 

 then Lord Pagett's,who had the same, together with the parks 

 of Heywood and Beaudesert," which he obtained by exchange 

 from the bishop. Leland states that the ancient mansion, the 

 ruins of which are above noted, was on the bank of the river 

 Sow, which mansion belonged to " Suckborrow with a long 

 beard.". It is supposed that he gave the estate to the bishop. 

 From the Pagetts it passed to the Ansons, who have long been 

 resident in Staffordshire, but it was not until the time of 

 James I. that they became possessed of Shugborough. It was 

 then purchased by 'Williarn Anson, Esq., great-grandfather of 

 the celebrated circumnavigator, Lord Anson. The present 

 possessor, the second Earl of Lichfield, is also Viscount Anson. 



The mansion (of which the accompanying is a representa- 

 tion*), is very large; it is one of those Grecian buildings to 

 which Corinthian columns, a prominent cornice and parapet, 

 as well as other embellishments, give a classical character. Ex- 

 ternally it has the appearance of being a stucco-cased house, 

 painted white, but I believe the material is not white stucco 

 nor plaster ; but whatever it is, the mansion, surrounded by 

 trees, has an air of importance which its large size on closer 

 inspection tends to confirm. Unfortunately, as already stated, 

 its position is low, although not more so than the generality 

 of the park which surrounds it, and which may be compared 

 to a vast plain well furnished with trees, especially towards its 

 boundaries, and with the Trent flowing through it at a short 

 distance from the mansion. 



The approach from the highway from Rugeley to Stafford 

 is through a noble entrance, from which the great size of 

 the park is only partly seen, but can be conceived. Much of 

 the adjacent country may be easily conjectured to be so much 

 park, and rich meadows and fine healthy trees meet the eye 

 everywhere. As we approach the house we find the carriage 



* This and the view of the gardens are from photographs by Mr. Lapworth, 

 of Stafford. 



