ON THE MANOR HOUSE OF SOUTH WINFIELD. 73 



parts of the building were then unroofed and went to decay, 

 whilst the large banquetting hall was by him converted into a 

 two-storied dwelling house, the pitch of the roof considerably 

 lowered, and rudely devised mullions and transoms introduced 

 into the fine series of windows on its north side. A north-west 

 view of the house, taken from an old painting towards the end of the 

 17th century, is given in Blore's History of the Manor. The 

 alterations of Imanuel Halton can therein be plainly seen. The 

 chief entrance was then through the old portal on the north 

 side, the room over which was still remaining, and it had a formal 

 walled-in garden in front, planted with stiff shrubs. 



"The great hall at Winfield Manor House," says Mr. Reynolds, 

 writing in 1769, "when in its prosperity, was 24 yards and 2 in. 

 and I long, and 12 yards and 1 inch wide. The great cellar 

 under it is of the same dimensions, and has a row of pillars up the 

 middle, and is curiously arched with stone. 'Tis now divided 

 into two cellars, and hath been so for several years past."* 



If this was all that the Haltons did to the Manor House, they 

 might have been forgiven, but in 1774, the then representative of 

 the family built the present ugly square house at the bottom of 

 the hill, and most barbarously pulled down much of the old fabric 

 to find materials. Since that time only a small portion has been 

 occupied for farm purposes, and the rest suffered to fall to decay. 

 The buildings on the east side of the north or inner quadrangle, 

 which are said to have been the most beautiful part of the fabric, 

 were the first to be pulled down to form the foundations. An ac- 

 count of the Manor in the first volume of Shaw's Topograph^-, 1789, 

 mentions that the roof was then off the principal hall, and that 

 the arms and quarterings of the Shrewsbury family were exposed 

 to the weather. This shows how speedy was the work of decay 

 and ruin when once it was left uninhabited, for two interesting 

 Indian ink sketches, taken by my wife's grandfather t on August 



*\Volley MSS., Brit Mus. 



+ Colonel Machell, of Beverley, was no mean artist ; he left behind him a 

 large collection of sketches and water-colour drawings of the most picturesque 

 parts of England in varied and much diversified styles. He was intimate with 

 Sir George Beaumont, Mr. Hearne, the engraver, and others who formed the 

 artistic circle of his day. The remarkable thing about his work was that he 

 had never drawn with either pencil or brush, until after the conflict of Bunker's 

 Hill, and at that battle he lost his right arm. 



