Journal of Proceedings. 
xliii 
Fisher Unwin gave a short account of the old Luxborough House, of 
which only some portions of the outbuildings and the extensive garden- 
walls now remain. Mr. Unwin said that the first mention he could find 
of the manor was in 1605, when Sir Robert Wroth died seised of it, and 
since then it had always passed with the adjoining manor of Cliigwell 
Hall. Early in the last century the demesne lands were purchased by 
Robert Knight, cashier to the famous swindle, the South Sea Company, 
who pulled down the old house and built a mansion. This was seized by 
the Company when the crash came, but it was eventually re-purchased by 
Knight, who was succeeded in 1741 by his son. Robert Knight was 
created an Irish peer in 1746, by the title of Baron Luxborough, and in 
1768 Earl of Catherlough. He sold the estates in 1749, and they came in 
rapid succession through various owners, including Sir Edward Walpole, 
to Sir Edward Hughes, an eminent naval officer, who made it his country 
house, and died there in 1794. His widow, Lady Hughes, sold the estates 
in 1799 to James Hatch, of Clayberry Hall, who had long wished to obtain 
them, and he immediately pulled the house down. Tradition says that he 
could not bear that there should be a grander house than Iris own so near. 
Neither Mr. Unwin nor Mr. Walter Crouch (to whom we are indebted 
for this slight sketch) had been able to find any mention of the original 
Manor House ; and therefore we may fairly presume, in the words of the 
latter gentleman, “ That it was not one above the usual average of such 
buildings ; but the one built by Robert Knight—and this in less than a 
century razed in a fit of jealousy—was of large and even imposing 
appearance, square built, probably of Portland stone. It must have been, 
judging by the engravings, by which alone we know it, to some extent a 
rival (and perhaps a partial copy) of the magnificent house which Sir 
Richard Child built in 1715 at Wanstead—having like that a fine portico 
in front with six Corinthian pillars supporting a pediment, and with bold 
cornice and balustrading over the wings. It faced the pond which still 
remains on the other side of Luxborough Lane. On the left was the 
garden, facing the lawn, and on the right a courtyard with outbuildings 
and stables, one of which with weathercock on top still remains. Sic 
transit gloria muiuli 
Mr. Unwin alluded to the mention of Luxborough as a locality for 
plants by Richard Warner in his ‘ Plants Woodforclienses,’ and exhibited 
some views of the house. 
The party then left the fruit-garden and walked through the lane to 
Cliigwell, making frequent stoppages by the way to examine some pond 
or wayside weed. In a pond lying in a portion of the scanty remains of 
the once grand forest of Henault, Mr. W. W. Reeves (Assistant Sec. to the 
Royal Microscopical Society) pointed out a quantity of the water thyme 
or American weed (Anacharis alsinastrum) in vigorous bloom. It is 
seldom found in flower, and only female blossoms are generally found, 
the male flowers being extremely rare in Britain, and have been observed 
by very few botanists. Perhaps it is a happy circumstance for the keepers 
