Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/368

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ii 2 s.ii.Nov.4.i9i8.

Green, as having consisted of a centre and -two wings fronting the west, with bay win- dows and high gables. The wings were decorated with the arms of England, crowned and supported by a lion and dragon, with the letters E. R. at the sides. And he goes on to say that that portion of the ancient structure which then remained comprising, amongst other features, a spacious apartment on the ground floor, which evidently constituted one of the principal rooms of the Princess together with that part of the garden in which the famous cedar still flourished, was occu- pied by a Mr. Thomas May, who had for several years, and still kept, a boarding- school there of great respectability. Mr. Robinson describes this large room as existing in his time, and still remaining in its original state, with oak panelling and a richly ornamented ceiling with pendent ornaments of the crown, the rose, and the fleur-de-lis. The freestone chimney-piece in this room, handsomely carved and em- bellished with foliage and birds, was sup- ported by columns of the Ionic and Corin- thian orders, and decorated with the rose and portcullis crowned, and the arms of France and England quarterly ; with the Garter and royal supporters a lion and a dragon underneath being the motto :

SOLA SALVS SEKVIKE DEO SVNT CETERA FRAVDES.

The letters E. R. are on the bottom corners of this chimney-piece.

In the same room part of another chimney- piece with compartments is preserved, which, Mr. Robinson says, was removed from one of the upper apartments, with nearly the same ornaments as the other ; it is placed on the wainscot over the door, and has the following motto on the one side, vr BOS SVPEK HEKBAM ; and on the other, EST BENE- VOLENTLY EEGTS alluding, no doubt, to the royal grant. In one of the upper rooms, of which there were four or five of good size, there was also a decorated ceiling ; and amongst the pendent ornaments, similar to those of the ceiling below, were the crown, the rose, and the fleur-de-lis. Excellent engravings of these two chimney-pieces are figured in Mr. Robinson's book.

It is said that after the Princess Elizabeth became queen she frequently visited Enfield and kept her court there in the early part of her reign, but that some years after her accession she quitted the Manor House and fixed her residence at Elsynge Hall.

After referring to various owners and occupants of the house, Mr. Robinson states

that about 1660 it was let to Dr. Robert Uvedale, master of the Grammar School,, who, being much attached to the study of" botany, had a very curious garden* con- tiguous to it, in which he had

"a very large and the choicest collection of exotics in England, and amongst the trees a cedar of Libanus, which was considered one of the finest in the kingdom."

The measurements or dimensions of the tree in 1779 are given. A large portion of the top was broken off in a high wind in 1703, but it continued a very handsome tree until the whole of the upper part was destroyed by a strong gale in November, 1794, and in "its fall many of the lower branches were injured. Mr. Robinson relates how, when the old palace was purchased later by a Mr. Callaway,. the cedar had a very narrow escape of being grubbed up, but that its admirers, particu- larly Richard Gough, the antiquary, and Dr. Sherwen, interfered, and at their request the tree was spared. This tree is stated to have been planted by Dr. Uvedale about 1670, tradition asserting that the plant was brought to him from Mount Libanus in a portmanteau by one of his scholars, f

The dimensions of the tree appear again to have been taken in 1821, and a sketch is given. Also a double plate showing the cediM standing in the Palace garden and bearing the marks of the havoc caused by the gale. Mr. Robinson says (p. 119) :

"The tree is still a grand object on the north side ; on the south and east, where it is seen from the road on approaching the town, it is sadly mutilated ; but it may be seen from almost any part of Enfield, whether on the hill or in the valley."

May I add that, nearly a century later, it still merits Mr. Robinson's appreciation ?

From the drastic alterations that, as we have seen, have been carried out in the old building, it is scarcely surprising if we find now but little of what once formed so marked a feature in the representations or the old Palace, more especially so far as the exterior is concerned. As one passes down the sheltered and narrow entrance that leads from the High Street to the Constitutional' Club, one sees but little of the old description that one can recognize, new brickwork being evident in many places, both at the back and the front of the buildings. There would appear to be few of the old windows remain- ing. From what is now a gravelled court- ground at the rear of the main building no

t See Gent. Mag., 1779, p. 139, and note to p. 148 in vol. iii. of Hutchins's ' History of Dorset.'
 * See Archipologia, vol. xii. pp. 188-9 (179i).