8 DENBY OLD HALL AND ITS OWNERS. 



lodge, a wing of much more ambitious proportions was added. 

 Thomas Robey, of Castle Donington (b. 1598, d. 1678), Sewer 

 Extraordinary to Queen Henrietta Maria, Consort of King 

 Charles I., married as his second wife Dorothy Wilmot, a 

 grand-daughter of Robert Wilmot, the purchaser of Denby 

 Park, and through her acquired the Denby estate. It is fairly 

 safe to assume that he was the builder of this section of the 

 hall ; the architecture corresponds with his time, and over the 

 door are the arms of Robey and Wilmot impaled. Unfor- 

 tunately, with the exception of the east and part of the south 

 walls, nothing of his work remains, and it is impossible even 

 to guess at its plan, though the small fragment left is sufficient 

 to show, in a tantalizing way, what a charming building it 

 must have been. It appears to have been allowed to go to 

 ruin, and to have been re -built, in the most uninteresting style 

 imaginable, early in the nineteenth century; even in the old 

 front wall the mullions and transoms have been removed to make 

 way for sash windows. In the possession of Miss Gregory, 

 the present owner, is a sketch of the old hall, evidently drawn 

 with a fair degree of accuracy, signed on the back : " James 

 Coxon, May 1st, 1823." This sketch shows the old portion 

 much in its present condition, but the later wing is roofless and 

 with grass growing on the top of the walls. The windows, how- 

 ever, with their mullions and transoms, were then perfect. On 

 the back of the sketch is a note by Robert Strelley Parker, stating 

 that " over the porch was a stone with the arms of Robey 

 impaling those of Wilmot"; the stone now over the porch 

 is modern, but this note shows it to be an authentic repro- 

 duction. 



The front of the newer portion of the hall, as will be seen 

 from the plan and the photograph, has a boldly-projecting 

 square bay window and a porch, which are very effective in 

 outline. It is built of similar materials to the lodge, and, 

 except for the facts that the windows are larger and the 

 mouldings a little bolder, and that the workmanship is generally 

 more careful, it will be seen that little real change had taken 



