Rev. R. W. Bosanquet, A.M., on Bock Hall. 61 



soon after this to have got into serious difficulties ; and the 

 end of it was that the mansion was deserted (I am unable to 

 say in what year), and in 1732 the whole of the estate (which 

 was by that time deeply mortgaged) was sold to lord Jersey , 

 at which time it was worth £600 or £700 a year. Though 

 the mansion, however, was deserted (I do not find any reason 

 to suppose that lord Jersey ever visited it), yet it was not, so 

 far as I know, injured, until the fire broke out in it, which 

 reduced it to the state of a ruin ; therefore, the sketch of the 

 Old Hall in the corner of the old parchment plan of the estate 

 is probably a fair general representation of the nature of the 

 building, though it is divested of ornament, and is decidedly 

 not picturesque. About twenty years, however, after the 

 property had changed hands from the Proctors to lord Jersey, 

 a great misfortune befel our " Old Hall ; " for it was so nearly 

 destroyed by fire that it became a ruin, and it so remained 

 about seventy years, during which time the walls got 

 saturated with wet, and the ivy grew upon it in the form in 

 which it was about five and forty years ago. That which 

 has now taken possession of the walls is, for the most part, 

 Irish ivy, which was first introduced by ourselves, and which 

 has assumed a somewhat different appearance to that which 

 characterized the old ivy. 



The only published account I have seen of the fire is 

 " Richardson's Local Historian's Table Book," in which, 

 under the date of May 15th, 1752, it is stated that a 

 " fire broke out in Rock Hall, near Almvick, formerly the 

 seat of Proctor, Esq., but at that time tenanted by some 

 farmers, by which it was entirely consumed, and some of the 

 families escaped with their lives so narrowly that they saved 

 nothing but their shirts upon their backs." Vol. II. p. 43. 



From that time it remained in a ruined state, till it occurred 

 to my father, Mr. Charles Bosanquet, after he had divided 

 the estate into farms, and in some degree put it in order, 

 which was about the year 1819, that it would be desirable, 

 instead of building a mansion upon a new site, to fit up so 

 many rooms in the old ruin as would enable the proprietor 

 to lodge there when he came down to look after his estate ; 

 which idea he proceeded very gradually, in the course of years, 

 to carry out. Meanwhile, the estate had again changed hands, 

 having been bought of lord Jersey in 1794 by my grandfather 

 Mr. Peter Holford, of Gloucestershire, a Master in Chancery, 

 who never saw it, I believe, and who, about ten years after 



