BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



made in Sir Nicholas Shireburne's time of an older 

 plan showing the building as originally projected, or 

 whether it depicts a scheme of Sir Nicholas' own for 

 completing the unfinished mansion, is uncertain. 

 There is unfortunately no scale attached to the plan, 

 and the dimensions of the actual building do not fit 

 it exactly 160 in every respect ; but generally speaking 

 it is correct as far as the existing buildings are con- 

 cerned, the positions of doors and windows being 

 rightly shown. 161 



This plan, whatever its original date, is of great 

 interest as showing the completed plan of the house 

 as intended, at any rate, in the 17th century. In 

 what is certainly the original part of the plan the 

 great hall occupies the larger part of the east wing, 

 with the dais at the south end flanked by large bay 

 windows, and the south wing contained the long 

 gallery. Between these two principal rooms, and 

 forming a south-east projecting wing, was the great 

 withdrawing-room, which had a large bay window 

 facing the east. These rooms are all on the first 

 floor, the bottom story following the early type and 

 being cut up into a number of small rooms, the 

 purpose of which can now only be conjectured. The 

 great hall was approached directly from the courtyard 

 by a wide stone staircase opposite the entrance gate- 

 way, and the entrance itself seems to have been 

 originally approached by a rather steep incline by 

 which carriages and horses entered the courtyard. 162 



The south end of the west wing seems to have 

 been occupied by the chapel, which went up two 

 stories, and in the angle between which and the 

 narrow south wing was a picturesque projecting bay, 

 with a small room on each floor and a circular stone 

 staircase. A corresponding but smaller projection in 

 the opposite angle carried up above the parapet seems 

 to have contained a flue or ventilating shaft. The 

 south or garden elevation was therefore very well 

 broken up, and with the older buildings of Hugh 

 Shireburne at its east end presented a very picturesque 

 appearance. It is of course now hidden by the later 

 school buildings which have been erected in front of 

 it, and the whole of its eastern end destroyed. The 

 kitchen and offices of the Elizabethan house would 

 doubtless be located in the older buildings, the new 

 mansion terminating at the north-east at the screens 

 of the great hall or a little beyond. 



The north wing as shown in the plan of 1 694 was 



M1TTON (PART OF) 



intended to be more than double the width of the 

 south or long gallery wing, and is shown divided down 

 its centre by a thick wall with five passage rooms on 

 the first floor on the south side and a large central 

 staircase with two rooms on each side on the north. 

 This part of the plan has more the appearance of a 

 late 1 7th-century design for the completion of the 

 Elizabethan structure than of an original 1 6th-century 

 project, though no positive conclusion can easily be 

 arrived at. 



After Sir Richard Shireburne's death his son con- 

 tinued and completed the building as far as it had 

 then gone, the work apparently not being finished till 

 about the year 1606. 103 It was thus, and remained 

 till the 19th century, a 'half-house,' 164 the comple- 

 tion of the quadrangle on something like the plan 

 originally intended only having been finally carried 

 out in 1 856. 105 The buildings as completed by 

 Richard Shireburne the son remained as he had left 

 them at his death in 1628 till nearly the close of the 

 century, when Sir Nicholas Shireburne began the 

 laying out of the grounds and that embellishment of 

 the fabric which has given it some of its most charac- 

 teristic features. The great avenue leading up to the 

 west front, with the ponds or canals on either side, 

 together with the gardens and summer-houses on the 

 south, were in course of formation in 1696, and some 

 buildings were erected on the north side of what is 

 now the kitchen court in 170 1. 166 Sir Nicholas, if 

 not exactly a great builder, was lavish in his expendi- 

 ture on the house and gardens, and he is said to have 

 resolved to complete the mansion. The idea may 

 have been abandoned soon after the death of his son 

 in 1702. He did not, however, cease ' improving ' 

 the house, as in 1703-4 he paved the quadrangle and 

 refashioned the staircase on its east side leading to the 

 great hall in a grander manner. The steps were 

 adorned with lions and figures of eagles and the door- 

 way at the top with his helm and crest. 167 He also 

 paved the great hall with white marble, put his 

 escutcheon over the fireplace, and erected the door- 

 way at the south side of the quadrangle at the bottom 

 of the bay window. But perhaps the most notable 

 piece of his work was the erection of the tall cupolas 

 on the tops of the two staircase turrets, on the east 

 side of the gateway tower. These were added in 

 1 71 2. They are covered with domes of oak bricks 

 and surmounted by lead eagles. 168 The gardens came 



(op. cit. 53) that this must be an error 

 for 1694. Sir Nicholas* own accounts 

 and those of his steward Dalton show 

 that there was at Stonyhurst in Sept. 

 1694 a Mr. Duddell who apparently came 

 from London (Lulworth MSS.). This was 

 the year that the spouts were put up in 

 the quadrangle. 



160 F or example, taking the gateway 

 tower and the south-west wing as correct, 

 both measuring about 30 ft. on the west 

 front, we get the length of the wall 

 between in the plan as about 45 ft. 

 instead of 5 1 ft. 6 in., which is its actual 

 length. 



161 There are one or two curious dis- 

 crepancies. Thus the bay window at the 

 south-west end of the great hall is not 

 shown going up to the first floor, though 

 the evidence of the building seems to 

 prove that it always went up both stories 

 as on the other side of the hall. The bay 

 also in the middle of the south side is 

 shown to the ground floor only. 



162 The present steps to the west 

 entrance seem to be a later insertion. 

 Sir Nicholas, when he constructed the 

 ponds and gardens on the south side of 

 the house, moved large masses of soil, 

 which he may have used in altering the 

 level of the ground on the west side. 

 See Stonyhurst Mag. (1885), 59. 



163 That date, with the arms of James I, 

 was formerly on the mantelpiece in the 

 great hall. 



164 Cromwell is said to have described 

 Stonyhurst as 'the finest half-house he 

 had ever seen.' 



165 The conjecture that Thomas Holt 

 of York was the 'architect' of Stony- 

 hurst seems to be based on the assumption 

 that Holt was also the architect of the 

 schools at Oxford and of Merton and 

 Wadham Colleges, and also on the state- 

 ment of Gwilt {Ency. of Archit. 414) that 

 he 'was the first to introduce the classical 

 orders in series above each other.' Holt, 

 however, was reported in the University 



of Oxford as aged forty in 16 18 (see 

 Diet. Nat. Biog.), which would make him 

 about twelve years old when the work at 

 Stonyhurst was in progress. Apart from 

 this, if Holt's claim to be the designer of 

 the Oxford buildings named is disallowed, 

 as it now generally is, his claim fails also 

 at Stonyhurst. 



166 The gabled building which still 

 stands there bears this date in Roman 

 numerals. Above one of the doorways is 

 also the date 1699, but the doorway was 

 brought to its present position from the 

 old kennels which stood in the field to the 

 north-west of the house ; Gerard, op. cit 



74- 



167 These steps remained in position till 

 1856, when they were taken away. They 

 are now in the college grounds. 



168 Turner, in his drawing of Stony- 

 hurst, using the privilege of his imagina- 

 tion and deeming them more in keeping 

 with a Jesuit college, put crosses in the 

 place of the eagles. 



