78 ON THE MANOR HOUSE OF SOUTH WINFIELD. 



cavations that are usually spoken of as a dry moat. But it seems 

 more likely that they were quarries for the sandstone of which the 

 rougher parts of the house are built, than made for any defensive 

 purpose. The better parts of the building are faced with an excel- 

 lent crystalline millstone grit, supposed to have been obtained from 

 Ashover Moor, four miles north of Winfield. Some of the stones 

 of this material are of unusually large size ; one of the windows of 

 the kitchen has the whole of the tracery cut out of a single block 

 without any joint. 



In the large window of the state apartment is the only fragment 

 of the old glass now remaining. It is of the pattern termed 

 " Grisaille glass." 



On the east side of the manor house were the old terrace gar- 

 dens. The yew trees point out the site, for the old gardeners had 

 only the yew, holly, and box — our three indigenous evergreens — 

 with which to plant their terraces, walks, or bowling-greens. 



To those who may take any special interest in this pile, and 

 who may not be acquainted with the work, I would venture to 

 recommend the excellent plans, elevations, sections, and other 

 drawings to scale ; executed and published by Mr. Edmund B. 

 Ferrey, the well-known architect, in 1870. 



I trust the members of the Royal Archaeological Institute, who 

 have joined the excursion, will not be disappointed with their visit 

 to one of the best specimens of Domestic Architecture of the 15 th 

 century that we Rave left in England. In its completeness, both 

 from the extent of the buildings and the beauty of their irregular 

 design, so well proportioned to the site, the manor house of South 

 Winfield might well lay claim to the epithet magnificent. 



