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III.—The Building of Theobalds, 1564–15851

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2011

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Extract

Sir Willam Celcil bought the manor of Theobalds in 1564 and we are told that he did so in order to provide an estate for his younger son, Robert, who had been born probably in the previous year. There will have been other considerations and Cecil's choice of situation is interesting. Theobalds lies just off the main road from London to Ware, the road he would take on his journeys to and from his principal seat at Stamford. It lies, moreover, in a neighbourhood studded with royal houses–Enfield (3 m.), Hertford Castle (8 m.), Hatfield (9¼ m.), and Havering-at-Bower (10¾ m.). In addition, Cecil's old friend Sir Thomas Smith was established at Hill Hall, Theydon Mount (7½ m.), and his father-in-law, Anthony Cooke, at Gidea Hall (12 m.). Finally, at Gorhambury (15 m.), his brother-in-law Sir Nicholas Bacon had started building operations in March 1563. It may or may not have been chance that Sir Thomas Heneage obtained the reversion of Copthal 15(6 m.) and began building there in the same year that Cecil acquired Theobalds.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1959

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References

page 107 note 2 V.C.H. Herts, iii, 447Google Scholar . In a memorandum by Burghley, Hatfield MSS., vol. 143, 101, it is stated that he paid £1,600 for the fee farm, besides other sums to buy out other interests.

page 107 note 3 Peck, F., Desid. Cur. i, 25Google Scholar .

page 107 note 4 Rogers, J. C., The Manor and Houses of Gorhambury [1934]Google Scholar .

page 107 note 5 Cal. S.P. Dom. (1547-80), p. 243.

page 107 note 6 Lysons, D., Env. of Land, iv, 31Google Scholar .

page 107 note 7 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 24.

page 107 note 8 Nichols, J., Progresses of Q. Eliz. (1823), i, 149Google Scholar .

page 108 note 1 Nichols, J., Progresses of Q. Eliz. (1823), i, 205Google Scholar .

page 108 note 2 Ibid, i, 291.

page 108 note 3 Ibid., i, 205, n. 1.

page 108 note 4 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 29 and 30.

page 108 note 5 Ibid. 143, 40.

page 108 note 6 Ibid. 143, 27 and 28.

page 109 note 1 Summerson, J., ‘John Thorpe and the Thorpes of Kingscliffe’ in Architectural Review, 12 1949Google Scholar . Thorpe's probable dates are here shown to be 1563-1655.

page 110 note 1 Thorpe's survey of the basement and ground floor of Theobalds House, in his book of drawings at Sir John Soane's Museum, is very difficult to date. On the basement plan are inscriptions, ‘ye Qs wyne cellor’ and ‘my Lo: wyne selor’ which, in combination, strongly suggest an Elizabethan date. Yet we know that Thorpe was active at Theobalds in 1606-10 (Pells Order Books as quoted in my article, see note 14) and this would obviously be the likeliest date for a survey to be made-in connexion with the change of ownership in 1607. Thorpe's survey of the whole estate (British Museum, Cotton, Aug. 1, i, 75) is dated 1611.

page 110 note 2 Hatfield MSS. Box G (16). I am grateful to Mr. Lawrence Stone for drawing my attention to these accounts, which are not calendared by H.M.C. The sums are quoted here in round figures.

page 110 note 3 Cal. S.P. Dom. (1547-80), p. 317; Addenda (Eliz.), pp. 44 and 49.

page 110 note 4 Rhind Lectures, Edinburgh, 1953; not published, but quoted by Hussey, C., Country Life, 10th 12 1953, p. 1963Google Scholar .

page 111 note 1 , Nichols, op. cit. i, 291Google Scholar , quoting from Lord Burghley's diary.

page 111 note 2 Cf. , de Vries, Multarum variarumqueprotractionum … libellus, Antwerp, 1555, etc.Google Scholar For the medieval use of the word in this sense see Harvey, J., English Medieval Architects, 1954 (index, s.v. portraiture)Google Scholar .

page 111 note 3 ‘Upon fault found with the smal mesure of her chamber, which was in good measure for me; I was forced to enlarge a room for a larger chamber’, , Nichols, op. cit. p. 205Google Scholar .

page 111 note 4 , Nichols, op. cit. i, 308Google Scholar . A three-day visit.

page 111 note 5 H.M.C. Hatfield, xiii, 110.

page 111 note 6 Neither is the old court (or its successor on the site) mentioned in the similar schedule of accommodation given in , Nichols, op. cit. (1823), ii, 400–4, and dated 27th May 1583Google Scholar . On the other hand the schedule Hatfield 143 (69) includes many rooms in the newly built court.

page 112 note 1 Philibert de L'Orme's Anet (c. 1552) is the outstanding prototype. Blunt, A., Art and Architecture in France, 1500-1700 (1953)Google Scholar .

page 112 note 2 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 46, 48, and 50.

page 112 note 3 ‘Painting … 2 tippes on y e porters lodge’ in the account for that year.

page 112 note 4 See the Parliamentary Survey to be quoted later.

page 112 note 5 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 37, 38, and 40.

page 112 note 6 Ibid. 143, 41 and 42.

page 112 note 7 ‘this vamure [parapet] must agre w the vamure of ye buildyg on ye Chappell syde.’

page 112 note 8 Ibid. 143, 31 and 32.

page 113 note 1 These words, written first, are not in Cecil's hand.

page 113 note 2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1560-1563, p. 301Google Scholar .

page 113 note 3 P.R.O., E 351. 3204.

page 113 note 4 Hope, W. H. St. J., Windsor Castle, Pt. i, 1913, p. 271Google Scholar .

page 113 note 5 Ibid. p. 272.

page 113 note 6 , Nichols, op. cit. i, 524Google Scholar .

page 113 note 7 Hope, W. H. St. J., op. cit. Pt. 1, p. 274Google Scholar .

page 113 note 8 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 33.

page 113 note 9 Serlio, Sebastiano, Architettura, Lib. 3 (1566), p. 122Google Scholar .

page 113 note 10 Cabala Sive Scrinia Sacra, 3rd ed. 1691, p. 141Google Scholar .

page 114 note 1 Hatfield Box G (16).

page 114 note 2 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 57.

page 114 note 3 Ibid. 143, 58.

page 114 note 4 , Nichols, op. cit. i, 111Google Scholar .

page 114 note 5 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 59.

page 114 note 6 Ibid. 143, 65.

page 114 note 7 Printed, in translation, in Rye, W. B., England as seen by Foreigners, 1865Google Scholar .

page 114 note 8 The diary of his visit to England (Sept.-Oct. 1602), written by his secretary, Gerschow, F., is printed, in translation (ed. G. von Bülow), in Trans. R. Hist. Soc. N.s. vi, 1892Google Scholar . I am grateful to Mr. Francis Watson for drawing my attention to this source.

page 114 note 9 An item in a memorandum by Cecil, 4th June 1585 (Hatfield 143 (59)) reads: ‘To levell ye new way frō ye streteward’.

page 114 note 10 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 28.

page 114 note 11 Ibid. 143, 47.

page 114 note 12 P.R.O., E 351. 3206 et seq.

page 114 note 13 See notes on Symons in my article‘John Thorpe, etc.’, quoted above. Also his signed plans for Sir R. Cecil's Chelsea house in Clapham, A. W. and Godfrey, W. H., Some Famous Buildings and their Story, pp. 82, 83Google Scholar .

page 114 note 14 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 99.

page 114 note 15 Fowler was Controller of the Queen's Works for forty years, from 1556 till his death in 1596 ( Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1555-1557, p. 254)Google Scholar . His will, P.C.C., Drake 8, contains legacies to Lord Burghley.

page 115 note 1 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 55.

page 115 note 2 Ibid. 143, 58.

page 115 note 3 See Fowler's will, cited above.

page 115 note 4 Ibid. 143, 37 and 45, seem to be largely in Cecil's hand.

page 115 note 5 This is in the garden of the present Old Palace House but is integrated with a wall which forms the boundary between this garden and the Cedars Park (Cheshunt U.D.C). The wall (largely of eighteenth-century or later brickwork) runs north for about 17 ft. then returns east in the Cedars Park. In the return is a recess covered by a four-centred brick arch, as shown opposite the porch in Thorpe's plan. This is obviously Elizabethan work and contains, in its upper part, a three-light opening in stone.

page 115 note 6 This quoin is at the south-west angle of a row of outhouses belonging to Cheshunt U.D.C. A brick plinth with moulded stone water-table runs north from the quoin and there is a canted projection the lower courses of which may have been the base of one of the three canted bays of the Open Gallery.

page 115 note 7 P.R.O., E 317 Herts. No. 26. Referred to hereafter as Parl. Sur.

page 115 note 8 P.R.O., E 351. 3241, etc.

page 116 note 1 Shown in a plan at Hatfield, 143 (49), endorsed ‘The othermost Gate by yr horse pod wt the Sators walk. 2 Aug. 1584.’ The Satyrs' Walk flanked the south side of the carriage way.

page 116 note 2 Nichols, J., Progresses of King James I, 1828, i, 136Google Scholar , quoting a description of 1603. The breadth of the walk is here given as three rods or some 15 yds.

page 116 note 3 This air-view is a detail in the map of the park, signed by John Thorpe and dated 1611 (B.M., Cotton MS. Aug. 1, i, 75). It will be seen that the representation of the house itself in this view bears no useful relation to actuality.

page 116 note 4 Parl. Sur. f. 26.

page 116 note 5 Ibid. f. 22.

page 116 note 6 ‘Boording floores of the twoe newe lodges for the porters’ occurs in the account for 1st Oct. 1607-31st Mar. 1609 (E 351. 3243).

page 116 note 7 As scaled from Thorpe. Parl. Sur. gives the area of the court as 2 roods, 5 poles, 7 primes from which a depth of approx. 50 yds. can be deduced.

page 116 note 8 H.M.C. Hatfield, xiii, n o et seq.

page 116 note 9 E 351. 3224, 3245.

page 116 note 10 The number and distribution of stories are deduced chiefly from the schedule of accommodation in 1572 (H.M.C. Hatfield, xiii, no) and Parl. Sur.

page 116 note 11 Ibid. f. 15.

page 116 note 12 Especially screens, e.g. Audley End and Leather-sellers Hall. But the porches at Cobham, Kent, and Audley End also illustrate the theme.

page 117 note 1 E 351. 3269 (1635-6). Carpenter on task-work, working and setting up 98 ft. of rails and balusters on ‘the twoe Tippes of the greene Gallery’. ‘Tippes’ invariably apply to pointed coverings, in this case certainly lead (Parl. Sur. f. 25). It is difficult to see what the balustrades were for.

page 117 note 2 Ibid. f. 15. There were three ‘Belconie doors’ o t Dial Court, with lead-bottomed ‘belconies’. These very un-Elizabethan features may have been added in Robert Cecil's time.

page 117 note 3 , Nichols, Progresses of Q. Eliz. (1823), ii, 402Google Scholar .

page 117 note 4 Parl. Sur. f. 15.

page 117 note 5 See p. 114, n. 8, ante.

page 117 note 6 Parl. Sur. f. 15.

page 117 note 7 Ibid. f. 3.

page 117 note 8 Ibid. f. 10.

page 117 note 9 E 351. 3243 (1607-9). ‘Woorking and setting up diverse pedistalls and fynialls … upon the gable endes and dormers of the roofes within the seconde courte and the other endes abutting into the firste courte.’

page 117 note 10 Parl. Sur. f. 9.

page 117 note 11 Ibid. f. 13.

page 118 note 1 Part. Sur. f. 9.

page 118 note 2 Ibid. f. 10.

page 118 note 3 E351.3261 (1627-8) mentions the laying of two sheets of lead over the lantern. E 351. 3255 (1621-2) includes an item for painting the lantern and painting and gilding three dials, ‘whereof twoe of them havinge but xij guilte on them … the other beinge double with xxiiij or figures in it with the signes and planetts made newe in the same’.

page 118 note 4 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 35.

page 118note 5 ParI. Sur. f. 3.

page 119 note 1 ParI. Sur. f. 11.

page 119 note 2 There is a drawing at Hatfield of the Hampton Court Fountain. Some idea of the Greenwich fountain may be gathered from the Works accounts for 1566-9 (E 351. 3204).

page 119 note 3 ParI. Sur. f. 10, describes the towers as ‘high faire and large … covered with blue slatt with a lyon and vaines on the topp of each turratt’. Elsewhere (f. 24) are mentioned ‘sixteene greate Turretts covered with Blue slatt, fower on each corner of the house round ye ffountaine Court’ Gerschow (see p. 114, n. 8) mentions twenty ‘einf-hering (Peinfuhrung) Tniirme’ of which these turrets will account for sixteen, the others being perhaps the Green Gallery turrets and the towers in the middle of the north and south sides of Middle Court. In the Works accounts, the most illuminating reference to the turrets is in 1620-1 (E 351. 3524): ‘mending and new boarding parte of twoe Turretts wch were decayed and rotten. … Hewing of Slates, mending and pointing the Slating and nailing of diverse Slates over vij of the Turretts above in the Leades, and new slating some parte towardes the topp of the sayd Turretts and Scraping of the Mosse from the old slates fitting and nailing of Lead about the Tymberworke above the Slates under the Beasts over the Turretts after the Slater had donne.’ The last passage suggests that although the sides of the turrets were slate-hung, they were surmounted by lead coverings. A drawing in Thorpe (p. 148) suggests a type of turret which would answer the particulars.

page 120 note 1 Parl. Sur. f. 26.

page 120 note 2 See p. 113, n. 8, ante.

page 120 note 3 Parl. Sur. f. 24.

page 120 note 4 Cal. S.P. (1547-80), p. 317. Quantities of slate and board had arrived on the site in 1568, on the order of Gresham. This slate, evidently imported from Flanders, would, of course, be for the hall roof.

page 120 note 5 See Evelyn's description, Diary, 3rd Jan. 1666.

page 120 note 6 E 351. 3243 (1607-9).

page 120 note 7 Parl. Sur. f. 23.

page 120 note 8 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143. See also pedigrees annotated by Cecil in S.P. 15, vol. xiii, No. 122.

page 120 note 9 Op. cit. (1788), pls. 32 and 33Google Scholar . These plates are omitted from the 1823 ed.

page 121 note 1 The position of the Royal Bedchamber under a tower rising from the middle of this side of Middle Court can be deduced from the schedule of accommodation in that year. See p. in, n. 5, ante.

page 121 note 2 Schedule of accommodation apparently belonging to that year, Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 69.

page 121 note 3 E 351. 3242.

page 121 note 4 Part. Sur. f. 17.

page 122 note 1 His son will certainly have used these new lodgings which were called, even as late as 1650, the Earl of Salisbury's lodgings (Parl. Sur.).

page 122 note 2 Catalogue of sale by Waring and Gillow Ltd., May 15-26, ign, of Furniture and Contents of Theobalds Park in Cheshunt Public Library.

page 122 note 3 Gotch, J. A., Early Ren. Arch, in Eng. 1901, p. 193Google Scholar .

page 122 note 4 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143,58.

page 122 note 5 See p. 114, n. 7, ante.

page 123 note 1 Strype, J., Annals, 1824, iii, Pt. 2, pp. 380–1Google Scholar .

page 123 note 2 B.M. Lansd. 104, 24.

page 123 note 3 Parl. Sur. f. 6.

page 123 note 4 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 57. The terms were first carved in wood by a Flemish carver and joiner, John Degrave (see references to him in Huguenot Society index). Other carvers are mentioned. Hatfield MSS. vol. 143,36 is a paper containing two estimates for this chimney-piece.

page 123 note 5 In the Smythson Collection, R.I.B.A.

page 123 note 6 E 351. 3245 (1610-11).

page 124 note 1 Hatfield MSS. vol. 143, 59 is a memorandum in which hangings for lodgings ‘over ye new bedchamber’ are mentioned.

page 124 note 2 E 351 3247.

page 124 note 3 Ibid. 3249.

page 124 note 4 The ‘open room’ is mentioned in Hatfield 143, (59).

page 124 note 5 Parl. Sur. f. 7.

page 124 note 6 See p. 114, n. 7, ante. Rye produces a copy of the sketch.

page 124 note 7 Parl. Sur. f. 7.

page 125 note 1 Gents. Mag. 1836, p. 154Google Scholar . I am indebted to Mr. Mark Girouard for this reference.

page 125 note 2 Pl. 36.