A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



portions of which, at the east end of the old south 

 front, stood until I 807 and others till as late as 1861. 

 The portion taken down in 1 807 was entirely of 

 wood and plaster, but had been refaced in the 

 1 Sth century with stone and sash windows introduced. 

 Standing to the south-east of the Elizabethan house, 

 its north side fronted what is now the kitchen court, 

 and the other fragments of the older house occurring 

 on the north and north-east side of the present 

 quadrangle suggest that the whole of the pre- 

 Elizabethan mansion occupied a site more or less 

 covered to-day by the buildings, the quadrangle and 

 the kitchen yard. The minstrels' gallery at the 

 bottom of the great hall, now the boys' refectory, 

 constructed in 1857 out of timber from Hugh 

 Shireburne's buildings, bears the inscription in black- 

 letter characters ' Quant je puis Hugo Sherburn 

 Armig . me fieri fecit Ao. Dni. MCCCCCXXIII. 

 Et sicut fuit sic fiat,' m and the external walling of 

 Sparrow's Hall, already referred to, may have been 

 Hugh Shireburne's work. Built into it were a number 

 of carved stones which are supposed to have come 

 from Whalley Abbey, but if this were so it would 

 place the erection of the front after Hugh Shireburne's 

 death in 1528. The most interesting of these stones 

 were two corbel angels bearing shields with the 

 emblems of the Passion and above them an inscription 

 ' Sicut fuerit voluntas in coelo sic fiat Factum est hoc 

 capellum anno . . .,' not, however, in its original 

 situation, as the words were misplaced. 152 There were 

 also five stones in this part of the building carved 

 with devices, two of which were evidently the arms 

 of the Lacys, the founders and patrons of Whalley 

 Abbey, viz. a lion rampant, which was their family 

 cognizance, and three garbs which they bore as 

 Constables of Chester. 153 



The exact date when Sir Richard Shireburne com- 

 menced rebuilding the house is not known, though 

 it is pretty certain that it was somewhere about the 

 year 1590. In his will dated 1593 Sir Richard 

 leaves to his eldest son 'all his iron to build with, 

 that he may finish the buildings therewith now already 

 begun, also his lead provided to cover his house now 

 in building at Stonyhurst, so that he may cover the 

 same as far as it will go, also all his building stone 

 and wrought timber at Stonyhurst.' 154 At his death 

 in the following year the walls of practically the 

 whole of the Elizabethan part of the house were 

 probably not far from completion, at any rate as far 

 as the great drawing-room at the south-east corner, 

 beginning from the gateway tower. The plaster 

 chimney-piece in that room, which is now destroyed, 

 bore the date 1596 together with the initials of 

 Sir Richard and his son. ' If this room was ready for 



the plaster work in 1596 it looks as if the building 

 had well progressed at Sir Richard's death in 1 594, 

 and there is the further evidence of a stone, now in 

 the great hall, the original position of which ii 

 uncertain, but which was probably over the fireplace 

 there when the room was first built, that another 

 portion of the mansion was completed three yean 

 later. 156 The building of the new house may have 

 started a few years before 1590, but the evidence of 

 the masons' marks shows that a very large number' of 

 workmen were employed and the progress of the work 

 would be therefore rapid. 157 



The new mansion as conceived, and as partly carried 

 out, by Sir Richard Shireburne was to be built round 

 a central quadrangle measuring about 81 ft. by 90 ft., 

 the sides facing approximately south-west, north-east, 

 south-east and north-west 158 ; but in the present 

 description the south-west or entrance front, following 

 the custom at Stonyhurst, is termed the west side, 

 and the south-east or old garden front the south side. 

 The design is one of considerable merit and of much 

 regularity both in plan and elevation, and if com- 

 pleted would have been one of the finest examples 

 of early Renaissance architecture in the country. As 

 it is, the existing portions of Sir Richard's buildings, 

 more especially the great entrance tower on the west 

 front and the south and east sides of the quadrangle, 

 are exceedingly good specimens of late 16th-century 

 work, and merit far more attention than has yet been paid 

 to them by writers on English domestic architecture. 

 The building seems to have been begun at the 

 entrance tower and continued along the west side of 

 the quadrangle southwards, followed by the south 

 and east wings as far as a point on the east side about 

 opposite to where it began, no doubt there abutting 

 against some of the older buildings already mentioned, 

 others of which may have been demolished to make 

 way for it. A considerable portion of the house 

 (probably the whole of that built about seventy years 

 before), however, was left standing to the east of the 

 south wing, and the north side of the quadrangle 

 was partly occupied, as has been already stated, by 

 older buildings. No doubt Sir Richard originally 

 intended them to make way for his completed quad- 

 rangular mansion, but for some unknown reason the 

 building was never finished according to what is 

 supposed to have been the original plan, and the 

 whole of the north wing and the northern ends of 

 the east and west wings remained unbuilt. The 

 gate-house tower, therefore, stood detached on its north 

 side for something like 250 years, and is so shown in 

 all old drawings and prints of Stonyhurst. 



The plan of the building here reproduced is taken 

 from one dated 1 694., 169 but whether this is a copy 



151 Father Gerard also mentions another 

 piece of woodwork which bore the inscrip- 

 tion ' Factum est hoc opus per Hug^ 

 Sherburn Arm. A Dni mdxiii.' From 

 this it would appear that Hugh Shireburne 

 began building operations of some descrip- 

 tion as soon as he succeeded to the pro- 

 perty. 



152 Stonyhurst Mag. (1885), IOO-I, 

 where a sketch of the angel corbels is 

 given. They are now, together with the 

 inscription, built into the walls on the 

 east side of the quadrangle. The inscrip- 

 tion is very similar to that of Hugh 

 Shireburne already mentioned. The form 

 'capellum' is unusual. 



153 Ibid. 100. 



154 Quoted ibid. 31. 

 "s Ibid. 



156 It bears the arms of Shireburne and 

 the date 1599. Probably the great hall 

 was completed about this time. 



157 The Rev. C. S. Beauclerk has dis- 

 cussed very fully the question of the 

 masons' marks at Stonyhurst (ibid. 30—7), 

 and has noted the marks of over sixty men. 

 There were probably more, many no doubt 

 having been lost, parts of the walling 

 being very much weather-worn and other 

 parts are hidden or have been destroyed. 

 Father Beauclerk assumes, therefore, that 

 Sir Richard started his work with fully 



8 



fifty masons and increased this number to 

 perhaps seventy as the work progressed. 

 The evidence of the marks goes to show 

 that the whole of the building was exe- 

 cuted at one time. Facsimiles of sixty-one 

 marks are given ibid. 33. The 'new 

 choir ' built by Sir Richard at Mitton 

 Church bears the marks of six men, five 

 of which correspond with marks at Stony- 

 hurst. 



158 Strictly speaking the entrance front 

 is W.S.W., the other sides of the house 

 facing the corresponding points. 



159 The copy of this plan at Leagram 

 Hall bears the name and date, * Mr. Dudell 

 1604,' but Father Gerard has pointed out 



