3o6 10b : 'I hear there is 

 t of old Hunsdon House 

 ■ ... it will be nearly a 



purchased by James S. Walker of Hunsdonbury m 

 1858. Mr. Walker then sold the manor to Mr. 

 Charles Phelips, but the house (in 1861) to Mr 

 James Wyllie, in whose family it remained until 

 1882, when it was purchased by Mr. Spencer 

 Charrington. It is now the property of the latter's 

 son, Mr. Edmund Knowles Charrington, and ia the 

 residence of his sister Mrs. Montgomerie, 

 The house consists of a large rectangula 

 a low modern wing at the west end containing the 

 domestic offices. The house is built of brick with 

 embattled parapet and a flat roof. Judging from the 

 dimensions given by William of Worcester, " the 

 original building must have been a very extensive 

 structure ; none of these dimensions, however, agree 

 with the present house. After the 

 manor came to the Crown (see below) 

 Henry VIII made considerable addi- 

 tions 9 "; about 1743 the wings are 

 said to have been pulled down, 10 and 

 in 1805 Mr. Nicolson Calvert pulled 

 a great part of the old house down 

 and reconstructed most of what re- 

 mained. 108 

 16 April 

 hardly a 1 

 left standi 1 



The oldest parts of the existing 

 house are the cellars under the east 

 end ; they probably date from the 

 16th. century. The largest cellar, 

 which measures 48 ft. 6 in. by 18 ft. 

 6 in., runs transversely across the 

 building, and appears to have formed 

 a wing of a former house, as it projects 

 northwards 8 ft. beyond the original 

 north wall, which still remains visible 

 in the basement, the present north 

 wall standing about 9 ft. outside it ; 

 the lower part of a small hexagonal 

 turret or closet still remains at the angle 

 of the old walls. The cellar itself has 

 a barrel vault of brick ; the walls and 

 vault are constructed of thin bricks. 

 The turret, which has no trace of a 

 stair, is entered by a low doorway 

 with a four-centred arch. The adjoin- tV,'-' ':"'■ 

 ing cellars on the west are of the same Egg 

 date ; one has a doorway with a four- BJEBttWff^ 

 centred arch, and in the original 

 north wall is a window, now blocked. 

 All the cellarage at the west end has 

 been rebuilt with modern bricks. Mrs. Calvert 

 writes 6 August 180s 11 : 'We have completed cellars 

 and we- think of adding to and repairing the old 

 building ' ; this, she writes later, was eventually 



The interior of the ground and upper stories is 

 entirely a reconstruction of 1805, the only evidence 

 of an earlier date being a 17th-century carved oak 

 mantelpiece in the entrance hall ; a stone fireplace 

 with a four-centred arch and three blank shields under 

 a carved wood mantei are probably all of 1 805, The 



BRAUGHING HUNDRED hunsdon 



external wall, are built chiefly of old thin bricks but 

 . large part appear, to have been rebuilt and - 



I laigc JJaii off'- - ,c„. 



embattled front added to the attic story inl8o S , 

 all the window, are modern. At each of the four 

 angle, of the hou.e i. a large diagonal buttress with 

 keel-.haped face, carried up above the parapet and 

 finished with a dated pinnacle ; the upper part, are 

 modern, but the buttresses are built of thin bricks ; 

 -aTngular block with some of them have probably been rebuilt. The whole 

 ■ of the external brickwork has been covered with a 

 thick coat of red colour-wash and ' tuck-pointed. 

 The main entrance is in a projection at the east end ; 

 the doorway, which has wide moulded jambs and four- 

 centred arch, all executed in cement, is probably 

 modern. In the garden wall to the west of the house 



Tiiif 



; 



Hi» 



House from the South-east 



is an octagonal summer-house, all of modern brickwork. 

 West of the house are modern stables and a large 

 brick gateway with embattled parapet, which forms 

 the entrance to the courtyard of the house ; the gate- 

 way is modern, but some old bricks have been re-used 

 in the upper part. A wooden lintel, now built in 

 over the gateway between the garden and the stable 

 yard, is inscribed 'H.H. 1593.' A moat which 

 formerly surrounded the old house has been rilled up. 

 In 1728 Salmon wrote that ' Robert Chester hath 

 within a few years built a seat in this parish, and 



