newstead.
we left annesley, as we have said, by that long wood-walk which leads to the mansfield road; and advancing on that road about a mile, then turned to the right through a deep defile down into the fields. here we found ourselves in an extensive natural amphitheatre, surrounded by bold declivities—in some places bleak and barren, in others, richly embossed with furze and broom. before us, at the distance of another mile, lay newstead amid its woods, across a moory flat. the wind whistled and sighed amongst the dry, white, wiry grass, of last year’s growth, as we walked along; and a solitary heron, with slow strokes of its ample wings, flew athwart—not our path, for path we had none, having been tempted into the fields by the beauty of the scene. we followed the course of a little stream, clear as crystal, and swift as human life, and soon found ourselves at the tail of the lake so often referred to by lord byron.
before the mansion lay a lucid lake,
broad as transparent, deep and freshly fed
by a river, which its softened way did take
in currents through the calmer water spread
around; the wild fowl nestled in the brake
and sedges, brooding in their liquid bed:
the woods sloped downward to its brink, and stood
with their green faces fixed upon the flood.
it was a scene that would have delighted bewick for its picturesque[291] sedgyness. the streams that fed it came down a woody valley shaggy with sedge—the lake thereabout being bordered with tall masses of it. there was a little island all overgrown with it and water-loving trees; and wild fowl in abundance were hastening to hide themselves in its covert, or arose and flew around with a varied clangour. another moment, and we passed a green knoll, and were in front of the abbey. john evelyn, who once visited it, was much struck with the resemblance between its situation and that of fontainbleau.
here all was neat and habitable—had an air of human life and human attention about it, that formed a strong contrast to the scene of melancholy desolation we had left; and also to this same scene when i visited it years ago, at the time when it was sold, i believe, to a mr. claughton, who afterwards, for some cause or other, threw up the bargain. to give an idea of the impression this place made upon me, i shall merely refer to an account furnished by me many years ago to a periodical of the time, which account was partly quoted by galt in his life of lord byron, and made liberal use of by moore, though without acknowledgment. i was a boy, rambling through the woods nutting, when suddenly, i came in front of the abbey, which i had never seen before, and learned from a peasant who happened to be near, that i might get to see it for the value of an ounce of tobacco given to old murray, a grey-headed old man—who had been in the family from a boy, and who now, at his own request, lies buried in hucknall churchyard, as close to the family vault as it was possible to lay him. he and a maid-servant were then the only inmates of the place, being left to superintend the removal of the goods. i marched up to the dismal-looking porch in front, to which you ascended by a flight of steps, and gave a thundering knock, which almost startled me by the hollow sound it seemed to send through the ancient building. after waiting a good while, some one approached, and began to withdraw bars and bolts, and to let fall chains; and presently, the old grey-headed man opened the massy door cautiously, to a width just sufficient to enable him to see who was there. finding nothing more formidable than a boy, he opened wide, and i inquired if i could see the place. the old man first looked at me, and then around, and said, “how many are there of you?” as[292] he was evidently calculating the probable amount of profit, i gave him such evidence of sufficient reward that his doors instantly flew open, and he desired me to wander where i pleased, till he could return to me, having left some important affair in medias res. here then was a wilderness of an old house thrown open to me, and the effect it had on my youthful imagination is indescribable.
the embellishments which the abbey had received from his lordship, had more of the brilliant conception of the poet in them than of the sober calculations of common life. i passed through many rooms which he had superbly finished, but over which he had permitted so wretched a roof to remain, that, in about half a dozen years, the rain had visited his proudest chambers; the paper had rotted on the walls, and fell in comfortless sheets upon glowing carpets and canopies; upon beds of crimson and gold; clogging the glittering wings of eagles, and dishonouring coronets. from many rooms the furniture was gone. in the entrance hall alone remained the paintings of his old friends—the dog and bear.
the mansion’s self was vast and venerable,
with more of the romantic than had been
elsewhere preserved; the cloisters still were stable,
the cells too and refectory i ween;
an exquisite small chapel had been able
still unimpaired to decorate the scene;
the rest had been reformed, replaced, or sunk,
and spoke more of the baron than the monk.
huge halls, long galleries, spacious chambers, joined
by no quite lawful marriage of the arts,
might shock a connoisseur; but, when combined,
formed a whole, which, irregular in parts,
yet left a grand impression on the mind,
at least, of those whose eyes are in their hearts.
the long and gloomy gallery, which, whoever views will be strongly reminded of lara, as indeed a survey of this place will awake more than one scene in that poem,—had not yet relinquished the sombre pictures of its ancient race—
that frowned
in rude, but antique portraiture around.
in the study, which is a small chamber overlooking the garden, the books were packed up; but there remained a sofa, over which[293] hung a sword in a gilt sheath; and at the end of the room opposite the window stood a pair of light fancy stands, each supporting a couple of the most perfect and finely-polished skulls i ever saw; most probably selected, along with the far-famed one converted into a drinking-cup, and inscribed with some well-known verses, from a vast number taken from the abbey cemetery, and piled up in the form of a mausoleum, but since recommitted to the ground. between them hung a gilt crucifix.
to those skulls he evidently alludes in lara, where he makes his servants ask one another—
why gazed he so upon the ghastly head,
which hands profane had gathered from the dead,
that still beside his open volume lay,
as if to startle all save him away?
and they most probably suggested that fine passage in childe harold—
remove yon skull from out those shattered heaps:
is that a temple where a god may dwell?
why, even the worm at last disdains her shattered cell!
look on its broken arch, its ruined wall,
its chambers desolate, and portals foul;
yes, this was once ambition’s airy hall,
the dome of thought, the palace of the soul;
behold through each lack-lustre, eyeless hole,
the gay recess of wisdom and of wit,
and passion’s host, that never brooked control:
can all, saint, sage, or sophist ever writ.
people this lonely tower, this tenement refit?
in the servants’ hall, lay a stone coffin, in which were fencing gloves and foils; and on the wall of the ample but cheerless kitchen, was painted in large letters, “waste not, want not.”
during a great part of his lordship’s minority, the abbey was in the occupation of lord grey de ruthen, his hounds, and divers colonies of jackdaws, swallows, and starlings. the internal traces of this goth were swept away; but without, all appeared as rude and unreclaimed as he could have left it. i must confess, that if i was astonished at the heterogeneous mixture of splendour and ruin within, i was more so at the perfect uniformity of wildness without. i never had been able to conceive poetic genius in its domestic[294] bower, without figuring it, diffusing the polish of its delicate taste on every thing about it. but here the spirit of beauty seemed to have dwelt, but not to have been caressed;—it was the spirit of the wilderness. the gardens were exactly as their late owner described them in his earliest poems:—
through thy battlements, newstead, the hollow winds whistle;
thou, the hall of my fathers, art gone to decay;
in thy once smiling gardens the hemlock and thistle,
now choke up the rose, that late bloomed in the way.
with the exception of the dog’s tomb—a conspicuous and elegant object, placed on an ascent of several steps, crowned with a lambent flame, and panelled with white marble tablets, of which that containing the celebrated epitaph was at that time removed, i do not recollect the slightest trace of culture or improvement. the late lord, a stern and desperate character, who is never mentioned by the neighbouring peasants without a significant shake of the head, might have returned and recognised every thing about him, except, perchance, an additional crop of weeds. there still gloomily slept the old pond, into which he is said to have hurled his lady in one of his fits of fury, whence she was rescued by the gardener; a courageous blade, who was the lord’s master, and chastised him for his barbarity. there still, at the end of the garden, in a grove of oak, two towering satyrs—he with his club, and mrs. satyr, with her chubby, cloven-footed brat, placed on pedestals, at the intersections of the narrow and gloomy pathways, struck for a moment, with their grim visages, and silent, shaggy forms, the fear into your bosoms, which is felt by the neighbouring peasantry at “the old lord’s devils.”
in the lake below the abbey, the artificial rock, which he piled at a vast expense, still reared its lofty head; but the frigate which fulfilled old mother shipton’s prophecy, by sailing on dry land to this place from a distant port, had long vanished; and the only relics of his naval whim were this rock, and his ship-boy, the venerable old murray, who accompanied me round the premises. the dark, haughty, impetuous, and mad deeds of this nobleman, the poet’s grandfather, no doubt, by making a vivid impression on his youthful fancy, furnished some of the principal materials for the formation of his lordship’s favourite and ever-recurring poetical[295] hero. his manners and acts are the theme of many a winter’s evening in that neighbourhood. in one of his paroxysms of wrath, he shot his coachman, for giving, in his opinion, an improper precedence, threw the corpse into the carriage, to his lady, mounted, and drove himself. in a quarrel, which originally arose out of a dispute between their gamekeepers, he killed his neighbour, mr. chaworth, the lord of the adjoining manor. this rencontre took place at the star and garter, pall-mall, after a convivial meeting—a club of nottinghamshire gentlemen. his lordship was committed to the tower, and on april 16th, 1765, placed at the bar of the house of lords, and without one dissentient voice, convicted of manslaughter, and discharged on paying his fees, having pleaded certain privileges under a statute of queen anne. the particulars may be seen in vol. x. of state trials, published by order of the house of peers.
the old lord, from some cause of irritation against his son, said to be on account of his marriage, who died before coming to the title, did all he could to injure the estate. he is said to have pulled down a considerable part of the house, and sold the materials; he cut down very extensive plantations, and sold the young trees to the bakers of nottingham to heat their ovens with, or to the nurserymen; two of which, lombardy poplars, bought at that time, now stand at the head of a fish-pond of my father’s, grown to an immense size.
mr. moore has justly remarked, that lord byron derived the great peculiarities of his character from his ancestors. after i came away from the abbey, i asked many people in the neighbourhood what sort of a man the noble poet had been. the impression of his energetic but eccentric character was obvious in their reply. “he is the deuce of a fellow for strange fancies; he flogs the old lord to nothing: but he is a hearty good fellow for all that.”
one of these fancies, as related by the miller at the head of the lake, was, to get into a boat, with his two noble newfoundland dogs, row into the middle of the lake, then dropping the oars, tumble into the water. the faithful animals would immediately follow, seize him by the collar, one on each side, and bear him to land. this miller told me that every month he came to be weighed, and if he[296] found himself lighter he appeared highly delighted; but if heavier, he went away in obvious ill humour, and without saying a word. at this time even, i. e. before he came of age, he had the greatest horror of corpulency, to which he deemed himself hereditarily prone, and used to lie a certain time every day in a hot-bed, made on purpose, to reduce himself. the master-builder, who had been engaged in the restoration of the abbey, said much about a certain kaled, who then was with him,—probably the same that accompanied him to brighton, as his younger brother,—and of the wild life kept up, and mad pranks played off, by him and his companions. he described the mornings passing in the most profound quiet, for his lordship and his guests did not rise till about one o’clock; in the afternoon, the place was all alive with them;—they were seen careering in all directions; at midnight, the old abbey was all lit up, and resounded with their jollity. on one occasion they were called up to extricate an unfortunate wight from the old stone coffin, where, in some of their mad pranks, he had secreted himself, and fitted it so well, that it was with difficulty he was drawn out, amid the merriment of his comrades. no person, indeed, could form any correct notion of byron from his poetry, till the publication of his don juan, which exhibits more of the style of his youthful conversational manner than any other of his writings, except his journal. i have heard a lady who used to see him at mrs. byron’s, at nottingham, say that he was then, in his teens, a most rackety fellow; was very fond of going into the kitchen, and baking oatmeal cakes on the fireshovel; on which occasions, the cook would sometimes pin a napkin to his coat, which being discovered on his return to the parlour, he would rush out and pursue the maids in all directions, and, to use the lady’s phrase, turn the house upside down. when they went away, he always took care to ask the servants if his mother had given them any thing; and on their replying in the negative, he would say, “no, no! i knew that well enough;” when he would make them a handsome present.
such anecdotes of his youth abound; but one is too characteristic to be omitted. an old man of the name of kemp, of farnsfield, was one day in southwell, when a dog in the minster-yard fell upon his little dog. he was beating it off, when a genteel[297] boy came up, and in a very decided tone said, “let them fight it out—they find their own clothes, don’t they?” the old man said, clothes or no clothes, his dog should not be worried. a stander-by asked him if he knew to whom he spoke. the old man said he neither knew nor cared. “it is lord byron,” said the person; but the old man said he did not care whether he was a lord or a duke, they should not worry his dog; and having got his little dog under his arm, he marched off in none of the best humour. some time afterwards, however, seeing “hours of idleness and other poems, by lord byron,” advertised, he recollected the spirit of the lad with so much admiration, that he took his stick and set off to newark to purchase the book, and always afterwards remained a great admirer of his works.
such was my acquaintance with the place then; it is now a good, substantial, and very comfortable family mansion. with its external appearance the public is well acquainted through various prints; and the only objects in the interior, which can much interest strangers, as connected with the history of lord byron, are equally familiar. the picture of his wolf-dog, and his newfoundland-dog—the living newfoundland-dog which he had with him in greece; the skull-cup kept in a cabinet in the drawing-room, and the little chapel and cloisters mentioned by him. there are also in a lumber-room the identical stone-coffin, and the foils i saw there twenty years ago, and a portrait of old murray smoking his pipe. there is also the well-known portrait by phillips. a full-length likeness of him as about to embark on his first travels, which was in the drawing-room at that time, is now gone, but has been engraved for mr. murray’s edition of his life and works.
it is fortunate for the public that the place has fallen into the hands of a gentleman who affords the utmost facility for the inspection of it by strangers. nothing can exceed the easy courtesy with which it is thrown open to them; and, as an old schoolfellow of lord byron’s, we believe colonel wildman is as desirous as any man can be not to obliterate any traces of his lordship’s former life here. there are some particulars, however, in which i think this care might have been carried more thoroughly into act. in the first place, i think a style of architecture in restoring the abbey might[298] have been adopted more abbey-like—more in keeping with the old part of it—and more consonant to the particular state of feeling with which admirers of the noble poet’s genius would be likely to approach it. to my taste it is too square and massy in its tout ensemble. i do not see why the architect, whoever he was, should have gone back in the date of his style beyond that of the ancient remains. the old western front is a specimen of what rickman calls the early english order of anglo-gothic architecture; so light, so airy, so pure and beautiful, that the juxta-position of a heavy norman style, and especially of the ponderous, square, and stunted tower at the south-west corner, is strange, and anything but pleasing. a greater variety of outline—the projection of porches and buttresses—the aspiring altitude of pointed gables—clustered chimneys, and slender, sky-seeking turrets, would certainly have given greater effect. instead of a square mass of stone, as it appears at a distance, it would have proclaimed its own beauty to the eye from every far-off point at which it may be discovered. any one who has seen fonthill, abbotsford from the galashiel’s road, or ilam from the entrance of dovedale, may imagine how much more that effect would be in accordance, not only with a low situation, but with the mental impressions of a poetic visiter.
i cannot help, too, regretting that the poet’s study should now be converted into a common bed-room; and most of all, that the antique fountain which stood in front of the abbey, and makes so strong a feature in the very graphic picture of the place drawn in don juan, should be removed. it now adorns the inner quadrangle, or cloister court, and is certainly a very beautiful object there, as may be seen by the print in murray’s edition of byron’s works. i do not wonder at colonel wildman desiring to grace this court with a fountain, but i wonder extremely at his gracing it with this fountain. i must for ever deplore its removal, as the breaking up of that most vivid picture of the front, given by the poet to all posterity:—
a glorious remnant of the gothic pile,
while yet the church was rome’s, stood half apart,
in a grand arch, which once screened many an aisle.
these last had disappeared—a loss to art;
the first yet frowned superbly o’er the soil,
and kindled feelings in the roughest heart,
which mourned the power of time’s or tempest’s march,[299]
in gazing on that venerable arch.
within a niche nigh to its pinnacle,
twelve saints had once stood sanctified in stone:
and these had fallen, not when the friars fell,
but in the war which struck charles from his throne.
*****
but in a higher niche, alone, but crowned,
the virgin mother of the god-born child,
with her son in her blessed arms, looked round,
spared by some chance, when all beside was spoiled;
she made the earth below seem holy ground.
this may be superstition weak, or wild;
but even the painted relics of a shrine
of any worship, wake some thoughts divine.
a mighty window, hollow in the centre;
shorn of its glass of thousand colourings,
through which the deepened glories once could enter,
streaming from off the sun like seraph’s wings,
now yawns all desolate: now loud, now fainter,
the gale sweeps through its fretwork; and oft sings
the owl his anthem, where the silenced quire
lie with their hallelujahs quenched like fire.
amid the court a gothic fountain played,
symmetrical, but decked with carvings quaint—
strange faces, like to men in masquerade,
and here, perhaps, a monster, there a saint:
the spring gushed through grim mouths, of granite made,
and sparkled into basins, where it spent
its little torrent in a thousand bubbles,
like man’s vain glory, and his vainer troubles.
it was seeing how exactly all this was a copy of the original—how there stood the mighty window, shewing through it the garden and dog’s tomb—how the virgin there still stood aloft with her child, distinct, bold, and beautiful—but the fountain was gone, that we could not help loudly expressing our regret. when the valet who attended us came to the inner court, “there,” he said, “you see is the fountain—it is all there, quite perfect.” “yes, yes,” we could not help replying, “that is the very thing we are sorry for—its being all there. a man might cut off his nose, and put it in his pocket, and when any one wondered at his mutilated face, cry, ‘o, it is all here; i have it in my pocket.’ the mischief would be,[300] that it was in the wrong place, and his face spoiled for ever.” to every visiter of taste, the abbey front must be thus injured whilst it and the poet’s description of it last together.
these are things to regret; for the rest, the place is a very pleasant place. the new stone-work is very substantially and well done; there is a great deal of modern elegance about the house; a fortune must have been spent upon it. the grounds before the new front are extremely improved; and the old gardens, with very correct feeling, have been suffered to retain their ancient character. an oak planted by lord byron is shewn; and why should he not have a tree as well as shakspeare, milton, and johnson? the initials of himself and his sister upon a tree in the satyr-grove at the end of the garden, are said to have been pointed out by his sister herself, the honourable mrs. leigh, on her visit there some time ago. the tree has two boles issuing from one root, a very appropriate emblem of their consanguinity.
the scenery around presents many features that recal incidents in his life, or passages in his poems. there are the houses where fletcher and rushton lived—the two followers of his, who are addressed in the ballad in the first canto of childe harold, beginning at the third stanza—
come hither, hither, my little page:
but in the progress of improvement, the mill, where he used to be weighed, is just now destroyed. down the valley, in front of the abbey, is a rich prospect over woods, and around are distant slopes scattered with young plantations, that in time will add eminently to the beauty of this secluded spot; and supply the place, in some degree, of those old and magnificent woods in which the abbey was formerly embosomed.
here ended our ramble, having gone over ground and through places that the genius of one man in a brief life has sanctified to all times; for like us—
hither romantic pilgrims shall betake
themselves from distant lands. when we are still
in centuries of sleep, his fame will wake,
and his great memory with deep feelings fill
these scenes that he has trod, and hallow every hill.
[301]
here too we leave the old houses of england, in the words of john evelyn:—“other there are, sweet and delectable country-seats and villas of the noblesse, and rich and opulent gentry, built and environed with parks, paddocks, plantations, etc.: adapted to country and rural seats, dispersed through the whole nation, conspicuous, not only for the structure of their houses, built upon the best rules of architecture, but for situation, gardens, canals, walks, avenues, parks, forests, ponds, prospects, and vistas; groves, woods, and large plantations; and other the most charming and delightful recesses, natural and artificial; but to enumerate and describe what were extraordinary in these and the rest would furnish volumes, for who has not either seen, admired, or heard of—
audley-end, althorpe, auckland, aqualate-hall, alnwick, allington, ampthill, astwell, aldermaston, aston, alveston, alton-abbey.
bolsover, badminster, breckley, burghly-on-the-hill, and the other burghly, breton, buckhurst, buckland, belvoir, blechington, blenheim, blythfield, bestwood, broomhall, beaudesert.
castle-rising, castle-ashby, castle-donnington, castle-howard, chatsworth, chartley, cornbury, cashiobury, cobham, cowdrey, caversham, cranbourn-park, clumber, charlton, copt-hall, claverton, famous for sir william bassett’s vineyard, producing forty hogsheads of wine yearly; nor must i forget that of deepden, planted by the honourable charles howard, of norfolk, my worthy neighbour in surrey.
drayton, donnington-park, dean.
eastwell, euston, eccleswould, edscombe, easton, epping.
falston, flankford, fonthill, fountains-abbey.
greystock, goodrick, grooby, grafton, gayhurst, golden-grove.
hardwick, hadden, hornby, hatfield, haland, heathfield, hinton, holme-pierrepont, horstmounceaux, houghton.
ichinfield, ilam, ingestre.
kirby, knowsley, keddleston.
longleat, latham, lensal, latimer, lyne-hall, lawnsborough.
morepark, mulgrave, marlborough, margum, mount edgcombe.
normanby, north-hall, norborough, newnham, newstead.
st. ostlo, oxnead.
petworth, penshurst, paston-hall.
quorndon, quickswood.
ragland, retford, ragley, ricot, rockingham, raby.
sherbourn, sherley, swallowfield, stanton-harold, shasford, shaftbury, shugborough, sandon, stowe, stansted, scots-hall, sands of the vine.
theobalds, thornkill, thornhill, trentham.
up-park.
wilton, wrest, woburn, wollaton, worksop-manor, woodstock, which, as camden tells us, was the first park in england, wimburn, writtle-park, warwick-castle, wentworth.”
