ENGLISH HOMES : PERIOD III.* IT is always a pleasure
to welcome an addition to the beauti- fully produced " English Homes " series published by Country Life. Mr. Avray Tipping's appreciations increase the value of a book that the fine photographs would alone make notable.
The period covered by this, the third of six volumes, is from 1558 to 1649, that is, what may conveniently be called " Late Tudor " and " Early Stuart." The choosing of examples to typify this great epoch of country house building must have had its embarrassments, for there can be few counties in England unable to put forward a dozen or so of respectable candidates for such representative honours. The selection has, however, been well made, though Shropshire, " returning " as it does eight of the whole twenty-six houses, would seem to have been peculiarly favoured either at the period in questien, or by the author. Still, we would not forgo a single one of the Shropshire houses described and illustrated—Beaudesert, Condover, Plaish, Madeley and the rest, though the pictures of the last only too plainly reveal a state of ruin ancl neglects
4‘ It is nearly two centuries since Madeley Court sank to the status of a farmhouse, and the revival of in rest in the gems of onr architectural past has only increased neglect and ill-treatment.i Until recent times the main block of the holise, containing hall and, chapel, though not inhabited, retained evideace of its formep, excellence, especially in its woodwork. All this has been removed, to unsympathetically deck a pseudo-Gothic house hi the neighbour. hood, and the shell is a dirty and dilapidated store place for farm stuff. Yet the whole extensive group of buildings, occupying a cup or hollow in the hills, is fascinatingly picturesque, and would be • Rnglish Homes : Period III. Vol. I. Br A, Avray Tipping, M.A., F.S.A. London: George Nownes. [13 3s. net.]
most pleasurable to visit but for the regret that so fine a specimen of our Early Renaissance style should have received such sorry treatment."
Other houses are shown that are in little better case than Madeley, the lamentable example of Kirby Hall being the most widely known. Here half a century of what surely must have been quite callous neglect reduced this most gracious of all Elizabethan mansions to its present state of ruinous decay. Even at the time of Napoleon's threatened invasion Kirby was still so splendid a place that it was suggested as a suitable inland retreat for the Royal Family, and we believe there are those still living who found hospitality where now they would find but stark and windowless walls, nettles and fallen debris. As Mr. Tipping reminds us, there were successive rumours before the War that Kirby was to be bought and restored by this person or by that, but unfortunately terms were never finally agreed upon, and what would have been costly enough in those cheap and prosperous times would be prohibitive now.
The moral of the fate of Kirby and its like would seem to be that unless one is prepared to do the fair thing by one's his- toric possessions and assume the implied responsibilities for due maintenance as trustee for posterity, one has no business merely to " own " them, but should part with them to another with more means or more sense of citizenship. At the present time, when great country houses that are well found and in good order arc sold only with difficulty and at comparatively low figures, it is certainly no easy matter to dispose of a poten- tial ruin, unless it is frankly acknowledged that you are escaping a liability rather than marketing an asset. The anomalous basis of the rating system is one of the causes to which we must attribute the creeping paralysis that is attacking our larger country houses, and it is here that we might reason- ably look for relief. That an ancestor spent ten thousand pounds (largely in wages within the Rating Authorities area) in the building of forty superfluous bedrooms that we cannot to-day furnish or clean or warm or light and have no ambition to fill,should not in fairness be visited upon his unfortunate descendant in the shape of half-yearly fines.
To add to the burdens of the over-housed is only to aggravate the congestion lower down by driving the self-evicted owners into competition for the very houses of which there are already too few. If the rating could be so modified as only to fall upon such rooms of a house as were actually furnished and used, or upon the number of servants kept, or upon the total of the household " books," or upon some more real indication of wealth and luxury than the mere .size of the house—a matter often outside the poor occupier's volition or control—we might see fewer imposing " Empties " and less of a scramble for compact medium-sized houses.
Unless the yoke is lightened we fear that we may live to make a sorrowful tour of the " Stately Wrecks of England." Still, we must not forget that there is a healthy credit side —Breecles and Chequers, both figuring in the book, are most laudable examples of generous and sympathetic " rescue work," as indeed are also Whitehall (Shrewsbury), Quenby, Ayeblary, Daneway and MU Mawr (Conway)--and we salute and thank those who have preserved for us such precious and informing monuments. Amongst good men who deserve w9ll, of their country we would hold in especial honour those who add to its beauty by building or by planting, and those who protect and transmit what was so added in the past.
It may (or may not) be a fine or disinterested thing to add to the Party funds. At any rate, the benefit is admittedly so fleeting and quickly forgotten that the benefactor is wise to obtain a receipt in the form of " an Honour." The man who wisely and unselfishly adds to the amenities of his country is more happily remembered in his works.
Previous page
