towards the north, was spacious, and of ancient appearance. At its eastern end was a suite of three handsome rooms, which constituted the best apartments in the castle: beyond them stood the chapel, and some parlours for common use, with rooms for upper servants; these comprehended the east front. The grand staircase occupied an area of forty square feet. The kitchen, the hall, and the chapel, ascended to the height of the upper story of the house; and the domestic offices, of all descriptions, were very ample. On the left side of the south front, beyond the great gate-house, was a long waste room, somewhat resembling a gallery, which was probably intended for a stable, or place of security for horses and other cattle, in the event of a siege. Under the eastern corner tower, in the same front, was a room of an octagon form, which was intended for a prison, in the middle of which there is still a stone post, with a large chain attached to it. In this castle, above stairs, was a suite of rooms similar to the best apartments on the ground floor. The chambers on this floor were sufficient to lodge a garrison; and the stranger is bewildered, amidst the different galleries which lead to them, and the many private winding staircases, that communicate with those galleries. The mind, in unison with the solemn stillness which every where prevails, naturally reverts to the remembrance of the past, by con

trasting the splendour of this castle with its present state of decay. The staircases were curiously constructed of brick, without the aid of timber. On every window of the different galleries was painted the wolf-dog, which armorials were the supporters of the ancient family of Fynes, to which, in the time of Edward the Second, and for many succeeding generations, the castle belonged. The towers on each side of the gate-house to the south front are eighty-four feet high. The south and north fronts of the castle are about two hundred and seven feet long; and the east and west fronts are two hundred and fourteen feet.

This castle is the oldest and most complete piece of brick-work in the kingdom: the walls are of great thickness; the windows, door-cases, watertables, and copings, are of stone. The moat, which formerly encompassed the castle on the south, west, and north sides, together with the pool on the east, were drained in the middle of the sixteenth century, and subsequently planted with fruit trees. Camden states, that in the reign of Henry the Second, this castle and manor belonged to a gentleman named De Herst, whose son marrying an heiress of the family of Monceaux, that name was in consequence annexed to Herst, and thenceforward the manor was called Herstmon

ceaux.

About twenty-five years ago the interior of this

princely edifice, which had successfully withstood the inroads of time, was totally dismantled, stripped of its timbers, window frames, &c., for the purpose of building a more modern mansion on another part of the park. It is the property of Francis Hare Naylor, Esq. whose maternal ancestor, Naylor, Esq. purchased it of Lord Dacre, in the reign of Charles the Second.

PLATE XLV.

South-West View of the Grand Entrance to Herstmonceaux Castle.

THE South-west view describes the dry ditch, and bridge over it, leading through the grand gateway. Under the eastern furthermost tower, covered with ivy, is the octangular room, formerly used as a prison, and described in the last article. The views on this side of the castle are beautifully diversified: rising and sloping grounds, finely wooded, alternately meet the eye; and the country opens before it with an extensive view over Pevensey Level. To the west of the castle, among some noble beech trees, a large heronry is still kept up.

PLATE XLVI.

Interior leading from the Grand Entrance, Herstmonceaux Castle.

THIS interior was the porter's lodge, leading from the great gate-house into a spacious court, surrounded with cloisters, called the green court, from which this view was taken when the inner apartments were pulling down.

On a rising ground, at a short distance from the castle, in a south direction, is Herstmonceaux Church, in which, under a flat stone, ornamented with brass, lie buried the remains of Sir William de Fynes, whose grandfather acquired the manor of Herstmonceaux by his marriage with Maud de Monceaux. This Sir William had two sons, Sir Roger and Sir James, who distinguished themselves in the French wars, during the reigns of Henry the Fifth and Sixth. From Sir James, the younger son, afterwards created Lord Say, the present Viscount Say and Sele is lineally descended. Sir Roger, the elder brother, who built the noble edifice already described, enjoyed the confidence of Henry the Sixth. His son, Sir Richard Fynes, married Joan, daughter of Sir Thomas Dacre,

Н

eldest son of Thomas Lord Dacre, who, as heir to her grandfather, succeeded to the honours and estates of the family. By this marriage the manor of Herstmonceaux descended to the Dacre family.

In this church is a noble monument to Thomas, Lord Dacre, whose posterity were here interred for many generations. The only son of this nobleman having died before him, he was succeeded in his title and estates by his grandson Thomas, about the year 1533, whose severe fate, at the early age of twenty-four, was universally deplored by the writers of that day.

In one of those frolics in which, in that age, young men of condition sometimes engaged, this nobleman, together with some friends, who were visiting at Herstmonceaux, sallied forth, on a certain night, to take a deer from the park of his neighbour, Sir Nicholas Pelham. By some chance, the party divided; and an affray taking place between the park-keepers and the party with whom his Lordship was not, one of the former received a blow, of which he soon after died. This was adjudged murder on the part of Lord Dacre, who, in consequence, suffered death. The peculiarity of the case, the youth of the party, and the fair and manly character he had universally maintained, excited an unusual degree of sympathy; and the inexorable rigour of the king in withholding the royal mercy, was universally con