UPTON COURT.* THIS carefully compiled and admirably illustrated volume, the
fruit of considerable research, may prove of great service as a local history. The student who knows how to use a book of this kind will profit by Miss Sharp's labours, though it may prove caviare to the general.
The elaborate tables of genealogy, the bequests made by the Perkins family, the lands they acquired or lost, the in- scriptions on their tombs, the difficulties they encountered as Roman Catholics in times of persecution, and the part they took in public affairs, which was rarely of much significance, will prove of little interest to the general reader. There is not a member of the family whose portrait forms a lifelike picture ; and several well-known personages, mentioned by Miss Sharp as associated with Ufton, have but a shadowy existence in her pages. For the history of the Verneys, which has recently attracted so much attention, there were ample materials that enabled us to see them in their daily life, and to sympathise with their joys and sorrows ; and, going back to a much earlier period, the letters of the Paston family supply a vivid representation of the age. The Perkins family, unfortunately, have not left behind them any lively records like these ; but the compiler's studies have enabled her to bring
• The History of Tifton Court, of the Pansh f Tifton, in the C .unty of Berke, and of t'zo Porkios Family. Compiled from Ancient Records by A. Mary Sharp. London: F.d..ot Stock.
to light much that will be of service to the local antiquary, and some things which throw light on English history.
Ufton is a small parish, with a very small and decreasing population, lying on the River Kennet. In the coaching days, the Bath coach ran through the village, and gave a name to the road, which it still retains. Originally, according to Domesday Book, Ufton was divided into two manors, but they were united under one ownership in 1709. The Perkins family of Ufton dates from the twelfth century, and died out at the end of the eighteenth. The architecture of the Court in which the family resided belongs to different periods, a portion of it dating back, it is thought, to the early years of the fifteenth century ; a portion belongs to the Tudor period; and there are parts that must have been built in the days of Queen Anne. In the present century the house was allowed to fall into ruin ; but it has been restored, and " bids fair to last yet for many long years to come,—a specimen not of a nobleman's castle or a rich man's palace, but of the home of an English country gentleman of the olden time." The principal frontage is towards the east, which is very usual in old English houses, for our ancestors, oddly enough, are said to have regarded the south wind as sickly, and the east and north winds as salubrious. This is the judgment of Mr. Denton (quoted by Miss Sharp) in his work on England in the Fifteenth Century ; but although he finds some corroboration for it in Shakespeare, it is partially contradicted by the old rhyme- " When the wind is in the East, 'Tis neither good for man nor beast."
Our ancestors may have been more indifferent to the depressing influence of an eastern or northern aspect than we are, but they knew how to shelter their houses and gardens in this "land of wind," as it has been well called, by quadrangles, walls, and hedgerows, and by building in sheltered spots. Miss Sharp says that Ufton Court, although it stands in an elevated position, is at the same time "hidden away in the folds of wood and hill, so as scarcely to be discoverable at any distance." Seclusion as well as shelter was doubtless, as she observes, an advantage in days of insecurity, and it may have been owing to its position that Ufton Court escaped from injury during the Civil War. Had it a voice, the house could tell many a strange story. It was the home of a Roman Catholic family, and the rambling old building afforded con- venient places for the concealment both of priests and of money. Informers found their dirty trade profitable, for they received half the fines, and there is a long story told here of a visit to Ufton Court by warrant of the Lord Chamberlain on the information of a tailor living in the next parish. The priests he expected to find there had escaped. but a hidden store of money, the supposed property of Recusants, was secured; and Miss Sharp states that the secret places described in the report at the time can still be easily recog- nised, and bear witness to the accuracy of the narrative. Several hiding-places have been discovered in Ufton Court. " Some are openings under the rafters in the sloping roof ; others are trap-doors in the floor leading to small dark chambers generally constructed against or behind the massive chimneys. They are mostly fitted with wooden spring locks." And the writer adds that in one hole covered by an oak plank, "the ladder still stands, down which, perhaps, some poor fugitive priest stumbled, to lie hidden while the house was being searched by pursuivants with warrants for his arrest, and while the trembling squire diverted their attention as best he might, knowing that the lives of both of them would have answered for it if an emissary of the Pope of Rome had been found within the walls." In Eliza- beth's days, a Papal Bull, it will be remembered, had deposed and excommunicated the Queen ; and the secret action of the Jesuits excited a terror in the country which led to a cruel system of repression. The difficulties that beset the Queen were profound, and it was no imaginary danger which led to the harsh measures of the time. On the other hand, security is the mother of toleration, and as the risk of anarchy diminished, the execution of penal statutes against the Papists fell into abeyance. Under Queen Anne, Roman Catholics were subject to many restrictions, but the Govern- ment was not inclined to severity, and the fines to which they were liable, as Pope testifies, were not always levied.
Ufton Court, by-the-way, is associated with the memory of that poet, for there in 1815 Francis Perkins brought the reigning belle of London, Arabella Fermor, the heroine of "The Rape of the Lock." Judging from the portraits which are engraved in these pages, she must have been a lovely woman. Pope, who it is supposed bad not seen the lady when he wrote the poem. and perhaps never did see her, describes her hair as black ; but the three portraits, as Miss Sharp points out, represent it of a warm, golden shade. Two or three more facts may be mentioned in connection with this old house before we close a volume which, for thoroughness of workmanship as well as for its handsome form, is well deserving of praise. There is a rumour that Charles Edward had a temporary home there in 1754. It was in the library of Ufton Court that the "Folio Shakespeare " is said to have been found, in which Collier claimed to have discovered some early MS. notes, which led, as Shakespearian students will remember, to a storm of con- troversy by no means favourable to the commentator. The "Perkins Shakespeare" is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. Throughout England, as all our readers know, many quaint customs are maintained that have been in existence for centuries. In 1581, a bequest of flannel, calico, and bread was made to the poor of Ufton and Pad- worth, and every year these gifts are still distributed in accordance with an old usage, the Ufton folk receiving their portions out of one window of the hall, and their Padworth neighbours from another. We may add that Blanco White's Letters from Spain were written while on a visit to Ufton Rectory, and that Dr. Fraser, the late Bishop of Manchester, was for ten years the rector of the parish.
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