



Produced by David T. Jones, Juliet Sutherland and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
http://www.pgdpcanada.net









GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXXII. PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1848. No. 2.

STOKE CHURCH AND PARK.

THE SCENE OF GRAY'S ELEGY, AND RESIDENCE OF THE PENNS OF PENNSYLVANIA

BY R. BALMANNO.


[Illustration: Manor of Stoke]

The Manor of Stoke, with its magnificent mansion and picturesque park,
is situate near the village of Stoke Pogeys, in the county of
Buckingham, four miles north-west of Windsor.

About two miles distant from Stoke lies the village of Slough,
rendered famous by the residence of the celebrated astronomer, Sir
William Herschel, and a short way further, on a gentle <DW72> continued
the whole way from Stoke, stand the venerable towers of time-honored
Eton, on the bank of the Thames, directly opposite, and looking up to
the proud castle of the kings of England, unmatched in its lofty,
commanding situation and rich scenery by that of any royal residence
in Europe.

Stoke, anciently written Stoches, belonged, in the time of William the
Conqueror, A. D. 1086, to William, son of Ansculf, of whom it was held
by Walter de Stoke. Previous thereto, it was in part held by Siret, a
vassal of Harold, and at the same time, a certain Stokeman, the vassal
of Tubi, held another portion. Finally, in the year 1300, during the
reign of King Edward the First, it received its present appellation by
the intermarriage of Amicia de Stoke, the heiress, with Robert de
Pogeys. Under the sovereignty of Edward the Third, 1346, John de
Molines, originally of French extraction, and from the town of that
name in Bourbonnais, married Margaret de Pogeys; and, in consequence
of his eminent services, obtained license of the king to make a castle
of his manor-house of Stoke Pogeys, fortify with stone walls
embattled, and imparke the woods; also that it should be exempt from
the authority of the marshal of the king's household, or any of his
officers; and in further testimony of the king's favor, he had summons
to Parliament among the barons of the realm.

During the wars of the rival Roses, the place was owned by Sir Robert
Hungerford, commonly called Lord Moleyns, by reason of his marriage
with Alianore, daughter of William, Lord Moleyns.

This Lord Robert, siding with the Lancasterians, or the Red Roses,
upon the loss of the battle of Towton, fled to York, where King Henry
the Sixth then was, and afterward with him into Scotland. He was
attainted by the Parliament of Edward the Fourth; but the king took
compassion on Alianore, his wife, and her children, committing her and
them to the care of John, Lord Wenlock, to whom he had granted all her
husband's manors and lands, granting them a fitting support as long as
her said husband, Lord Robert, should live. But the Lancasterians
making head in the north, he "flew out" again, being the chief of
those who were in the castle of the Percys, at Alnwick, with five or
six hundred Frenchmen, and being taken prisoner at the battle of
Hexham, he was beheaded at Newcastle on Tyne, but buried in the north
aisle of the cathedral of Salisbury.

Lady Alianore, his widow, lies buried in the church of Stoke Pogeys;
and her monument may still be seen, with an epitaph commencing thus:

    _Hic, hoc sub lapide sepelitur Corpus venerabilis
    Dominae Alianorae Molins, Baronissiae, quam
    prius desponsavit Dominus Robertus Hungerford,
    miles et Baro. &c. &c._

Notwithstanding the grant to Lord Wenlock, Thomas, the son and heir of
Lord Robert Hungerford, succeeded to the estate. For a time he sided
with the famous Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, who took part with
Edward the Fourth, but afterward "falling off," and endeavoring for
the restoration of King Henry the Sixth, was seized on, and tried for
his life at Salisbury, before that diabolical tyrant, crook-back Duke
of Gloucester, afterward Richard the Third, where he had judgment of
the death of a traitor, and suffered accordingly the next day.

But during the reign of Henry the Seventh, in 1485, when the Red Roses
became triumphant at the decisive battle of Bosworth, and these
unnatural and bloody wars which had devastated England for nearly
thirty years, being brought to a close, by the union of Henry with
Elizabeth of York, representative of the White Roses, the attainder of
Thomas, as well as that of his father, Lord Robert, being reversed in
Parliament, his only child and heir, called Mary, succeeded to the
estate.

Lady Mary married Edward, Lord Hastings, from whom the present Earl of
Huntingdon is descended. She used the title of Lady Hungerford,
Botreux, Molines, and Peverell. To this marriage Shakspeare alludes in
the tragedy of King Henry the VI., Part 3, A. 4, Sc. 1, when he makes
the Duke of Clarence say ironically,

    For this one speech Lord Hastings well deserves
    To have the heir of the Lord Hungerford.

Lord George Hungerford succeeding his father, was advanced to the
title of Earl of Huntingdon by King Henry the Eighth, in 1529. He died
the 24th of March, 1543, and lies buried in the chancel of Stoke
Pogeys. Edward, his second son, was a warrior with King Henry the
Eighth, and during the reign of Henry's daughter, Queen Mary, 1555,
declared his testament, appointing his body to be buried at Stoke
Pogeys, and directing his executors to build a chapel of stone, with
an altar therein, adjoining the church or chancel, where the late Earl
Huntingdon and his wife (his father and mother) lay buried; and that a
tomb should be made, with their images carved in stone, appointing
that a plate of copper, double gilt, should be made to represent his
own image, of the size of life, _in harness_, (armor,) and a memorial
in writing, with his arms, to be placed upright on the wall of the
chapel, without any other tomb for him. He died without issue. Earl
Henry was the last of the illustrious family of Huntingdon who
possessed the manor and manor-house of Stoke; and the embarrassed
state of his affairs compelled him to mortgage the estate to one
Branthwait, a sergeant at law, in 1580, during which period it was
occupied by Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton, the fine dancer,
one of the celebrated _favorites_ of Elizabeth, the lascivious
daughter of King Henry the Eighth--a woman as fickle as profligate, as
cruel and hard-hearted, so far as regarded her numerous paramours, as
her brutal father was in respect to his wives.

This historical detail, gathered from Domesday Book, Dugdale, and
other authorities, is narrated in consequence of its bearing upon some
celebrated poems hereafter to be noticed, and is continued up to the
present period for a like reason.

Sir Christopher Hatton died in 1591, and settled his estate on Sir
William Newport, whose daughter became the second wife of Sir Edward
Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, who purchased
the estate of Stoke. After the dissolution of the Parliament by King
Charles the First, in March, 1628-9, Sir Edward Coke being then
greatly advanced in years, retired to his house at Stoke, where he
spent the remainder of his days in a quiet retirement, universally
respected and esteemed; and there, says his epitaph, crowned his pious
life with a pious and Christian departure, on Wednesday the 3d day of
September, A. D., 1634, and of his age 83; his last words, "THY
KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE!"

Upon the death of Sir Edward Coke, the manor and estate of Stoke
devolved to his son-in-law, Viscount Purbeck, elder brother of
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who perished by the hand of the
assassin, Felton.

Lord Purbeck, upon the death of his wife, daughter of Sir Edward Coke,
married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Slingsby, by whom he had a
son, Robert, which Robert, marrying the daughter and heir of Sir John
Danvers, one of the judges who sat on the trial of King Charles the
First, obtained a patent from Cromwell, Protector of the Commonwealth,
to change his name to Danvers, alledging as the reasons for his so
doing "the many disservices done to the commonwealth by the name of
the family of Villiers."

In 1657, Viscount Purbeck granted a lease of the manor and house of
Stoke, to Sir Robert Gayer during his own life; and in the same year,
his son, Robert Villiers, or Danvers, sold his reversionary interest
in the estate to Sir R. Gayer for the sum of eight thousand five
hundred and sixty-four pounds. The family of Gayers continued in
possession until 1724, when the estate was sold for twelve thousand
pounds to Edmund Halsey, Esq., M.P., who died in 1729, his daughter
Anne married Sir Richard Temple, created Viscount Cobham, who survived
him; and she resided at Stoke until her death in the year 1760.

The house and manor of Stoke were sold in the same year, by the
representatives of Edmund Halsey, to the Honorable Thomas Penn, Lord
Proprietary of the Province of Pennsylvania, the eldest surviving son
of the Honorable William Penn, the celebrated founder and original
proprietary of the province.

Upon the death of Thomas Penn, in 1775, the manor of Stoke, together
with all his other estates, devolved upon his eldest surviving son,
John, by the Right Honorable Lady Juliana, his wife, fourth daughter
of the Earl of Pomfret.

In 1789, the ancient mansion of Stoke, appearing to Mr. Penn, after
some years absence in America, to demand very extensive repairs,
(chiefly from the destructive consequences of damp in the principal
rooms,) it was judged advisable to take it down.

The style of its architecture was not of a kind the most likely to
dissuade him from this undertaking. Most of the great buildings of
Queen Elizabeth's reign have a style peculiar to themselves, both in
form and finishing, where, though much of the old Gothic is retained,
and a great part of the new style is adopted, yet neither
predominates, while both, thus indiscriminately blended, compose a
fantastic species, hardly reducible to any class or name. One of its
characteristics is the affectation of _large_ and _lofty_ windows,
where, says Lord Bacon, "you shall have sometimes faire houses so full
of glass, that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun."
A perfect specimen of this fantastic style, in complete repair, may be
seen in Hardwick Hall, county of Derby, one of the many residences of
that princely and amiable nobleman, the Duke of Devonshire, and a
perfect _contrast_ to it, at his other noble residence not many miles
distant, in the same county, Chatsworth, "the Palace of the Peak."

It is true that high antiquity alone gives, in the eye of taste, a
continually increasing value to specimens of all such kinds of
architecture; but beside that, the superiority of the new site chosen
by Mr. Penn was manifest, the principal rooms of the old mansion at
Stoke, where the windows admitted light from _both_ the opposite
sides, were instances, peculiarly exemplifying the remark of Lord
Bacon, and countenancing the design to lessen the number of bad, and
increase that of the good examples of architecture. But a wing of the
ancient plan was preserved, and is still kept in repair, as a relic,
harmonizing with the surrounding scenery, and forms with the rustic
offices, and fruit-gardens annexed, the _villa rustica_ and
_fructuaria_ of the place.

The new buildings, or, more properly speaking, Palace of Stoke, was
begun by Mr. Penn immediately after his return from a long absence in
Pennsylvania, and was covered-in in December, 1790. It is scarcely
possible to conceive a finer site than that chosen by him for his new
mansion, being on a commanding eminence, the windows of the principal
front looking over a rich, variegated landscape toward the lofty
towers of Windsor Castle, at a distance of four miles, which
terminates the view in that direction; whilst about and around the
site are abundance of magnificent aged oaks, elms, and beeches.

    *    *    *    *    *

The poems of Thomas Gray, who was educated at Eton, and resided at
Stoke, are perhaps better known, more read, more easily remembered,
and more frequently quoted, than those of any other English poet.
Where is the person who does not remember with feelings approaching to
enthusiasm, the impressions made on his youthful fancy by the
enchanting language of the "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard?"
Who can ever forget the impressions with which he first read the
narrative of the "hoary-headed swain," and the deep emotion felt on
perusing the pathetic epitaph, "graved on the stone, beneath yon aged
thorn," beginning--

    Here rests his head upon the lap of earth.
    A youth to fortune and to fame unknown:
    Fair science frowned not on his humble birth.
    And melancholy marked him for her own.

That exquisite poem contains passages "grav'd" on the hearts of all
who ever read it in youth, until they themselves become
hoary-headed--and then, perhaps, remembered most.

But it is not the Elegy alone which makes an indelible impression on
the youthful reader; equally imperishable are the lines on a distant
prospect of Eton College.

    Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
    That crown the wat'ry glade,
    Where grateful science still adores
    Her Henry's holy shade.[1]

And who can ever forget the Bard--

    Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!
    Confusion on thy banners wait!
  Though fann'd by conquests crimson wing,
    They mock the air with idle state.

Or the lovely Ode on the Spring.

  Lo! where the rosy bosom'd Hours
     Fair Venus' train appear,
  Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
     And wake the purple year!

Or those sublime Odes--On The Progress of Poesy. Awake, AEolian lyre,
awake; and the Descent of Odin:

    Uprose the king of men with speed,
    And saddled strait his coal-black steed:
    Down the yawning steep he rode,
    That leads to Hela's drear abode.

[Footnote 1: Eton was founded and endowed by King Henry the Sixth. A
marble bust of the poet Gray was presented by Lord Morpeth, in 1846,
and placed, amongst many others, in the upper school.]

Who can ever forget the pleasure experienced on the first perusal, and
on every subsequent reading of these fascinating productions? They
are such as all, imbued with even a moderate degree of taste and
feeling, must respond to. But there is another poem of Gray's, less
read, perhaps, than these, but which, from its humor and arch playful
style, is apt to make a strong and lasting impression on an
enthusiastic juvenile mind. It opens so abruptly and oddly, that
attention is bespoke from the first line. It is entitled "A Long
Story."

    In Britain's isle--no matter where--
    An ancient pile of building stands:
    The Huntingdons and Hattons there
    Employed the power of fairy hands
    To raise the ceilings fretted height,
    Each panel in achievements clothing,
    Rich windows, that exclude the light,
    And passages, that lead to nothing.

This poem, teeming with quaint humor, contains one hundred and
forty-four lines, beside, _as it says_, "two thousand which are lost!"

Extreme admiration of the poems of Gray had been excited in the
writer's mind even when a schoolboy. In after years, whilst occupying
chambers in the Temple, he first became aware that the scenery so
exquisitely described in the Elegy, and the "ancient pile" of
building, so graphically delineated in the Long Story, were both
within a few hours' ride of London, and adjoining each other.

Until about the year 1815 he had constantly supposed that the Country
Church-yard was altogether an imaginary conception, and that the
ancient mansion of the Huntingdons was far away, somewhere in the
midland counties; but when fully aware of the true localities, he was
almost mad with impatience, until, on a Saturday afternoon, _he_ could
get relieved from the turmoil of business, to fly to scenes hallowed
by recollections of the halcyon days of youthful aspirations of hope,
and love, and innocence--and sweetly and fresh do such reminiscences
still float in his memory.

About the period in question, there was a club in London, formed of
about twenty or thirty of the most aristocratic of the young nobility,
possessed of more wealth than wisdom. They gave themselves the name of
the Whip Club, because each member drove his own team of four horses.
The chief tutor of these titled Jehu's in the art and mystery of
driving, was no less a personage than the celebrated Tom Moody, driver
of the Windsor Coach, and by that crack coach it was intended to
proceed as far as Slough, on the intended excursion to Stoke, and then
turn off to