A solemn
funeral was nevertheless performed, with masses and all other spiritual
rites, for the soul of the high and noble Lady Hermione of Arnheim; and it
was exactly on that same day three years that the baron himself was laid
in the grave of the same chapel of Arnheim, with sword, shield, and
helmet, as the last male of his family."
* * * * *
THE TOPOGRAPHER.
SAWSTON HALL.[1]
[Footnote 1: The above brief account of a veritable old English Manor
House, transcribed from a few rough notes, taken at the period of personal
observation, is now supplied by the writer as an article entitled "The
Siege of Sawston," appears this month, in that clever and amusing work
_The United Service Journal_.]
Huge halls, long galleries, spacious chambers join'd
By no quite lawful marriage of the arts,
Might shock a connoisseur; but when combin'd
Form'd a whole, which, irregular in parts,
Yet left a grand impression on the mind
At least, of those whose eyes are in their hearts.
We gaze upon a giant for his stature,
Nor judge at first, if all be true to nature.
BYRON.
Quoting from the same poem, we may truly say of Sawston Hall,
Cambridgeshire--"The mansion's self is vast and venerable,"--for it is
one of the most pleasing architectural relics of the "elder time," which
at present exists in England. The house, a large, old, substantial
mansion, built partly, as says the tradition, from the walls of Cambridge
Castle, has been the property of the Roman Catholic family of Huddleston,
for some centuries; and assuming its present appearance early in the reign
of Queen Mary, has, with only the trifling alterations incidental to
necessary repairs, retained it; for the Huddlestons, inhabiting Sawston
Hall, and residing there in each generation, highly respected as country
gentlemen, either from the extravagance of some of the family, or from a
taste for old associations, have been prevented from altering it.
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