In the Hall of old Beaumanor Stands a giant oaken chair, Well it tells what oaks once flourished In Beaumanor's woodland vale: Ere the Barons' lengthen'd feud- Sought its shade from noontide rays; Poets, warriors, statesmen, sages, Glorious Beaumonts-gallant Greys. Bradgate's early blighted beauty Sat with Aylmer in its shadeList'ning lore of faith and duty Nymph and Druid of the glade. Herrick, fam'd for love-fraught lyrics, Sang his love-songs in these groves; Half Anacreon's soul was Herrick's, And the other half was-Love's. Nail or joining not requiring: Cut from out one solid bole: Strangers ask, this chair admiring, "This the fragment! what the whole?" Round its crown-like summit twining Hangs a garland, green or sear: Rose-buds wreathed round war-arm shining, Beauty's flower on Valour's spear. Legends say how old Beaumanor Once a Royal Park was made; How a Farnham bore a banner Bravely in the fierce Crusade. How a grant to faithful Farnham Then was made for service done, Of the lands of false de Varnam, "Long as Soar to Trent shall run." Suit and service only making At Beaumanor, year by year, Rose-buds two-one arrow takingArrow head, or shaftless spear. Emblems these of Knighthood's duty, Due from loyal liegemen are: Rose-buds-homage vowed to beautySpear-the ready hand for war. NOTE.-The following extracts will account for this customary service:-On the decease of Thomas Farnham, Esq., in 1574, it was found that the manor of Quorndon, called The Over Hall, one hundred and eighty acres of land and forty of wood, in Quorndon, were held of the Queen, as of her manor of Beaumanor, in free socage, by the rent of one garland of roses, one rose flower, and one barbed arrow, of iron, to be annually paid on the feast of St. John the Baptist, in lieu of all other services, suits of Court, &c. In a rent-roll at Beaumanor (1597) occur the following entries:-Adrian Farnham, Esq., 6d., as chief rent for The Hall Carr, and 11s. for Turvile's lands, in the manor of Rushall, called Rusha or Rushall Fields, in the liberty of Woodhouse.-"Bundle of deeds relating to the manor of Rushall, Mr. Varnham's estate," is a sentence quoted by Nichols, under Snarestone, which he confesses to be somewhat unintelligible. WOODHOUSE, WOODHOUSE EAVES, AND WOODTHORPE. The names of these sequestered and delightful old hamlets, surrounding Beaumanor, were, doubtless, first given to some solitary lodges in the "vast wilderness," which at one period extended from the Forest to the Park of Quorn.* The two former are in the parish of Barrow, the latter in that of Loughborough. I class them under one head, from the similarity of their derivation, and from their connexion with Beaumanor. Woodhouse Proper, lying nearly a mile east of the Forest, first claims notice. It is not mentioned in Domesday Book. Nichols thought Udecote an early name for it, but he was unquestionably in error. That place is situated near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In 1427, it was found that Elizabeth, widow of Henry Beaumont, died seised of Woodhouse as a member of Beaumanor.† The Abbot and Convent of St. Mary de Pratis, at Leicester, possessed the great tithes here the Monks of St. Severus the small tithes. The former had a bercaria, pomarium, and tithe-barn in Woodhouse. Mr. (shortly afterwards Sir) William Heyricke purchased, in 1599, the tithes here, together with Garat's Hay and Little Wellows, which contained two hundred acres of land, of Henry Best and Robert Holland; Garat's Hay, however, passed from the Herrick family to the Cooks-from the Cooks to the Hartopps-and was sold by Chiverton Hartopp, Esq., father of the first Baroness Howe, to Edward Heanes, Esq., the ancestor of the present owner, Miss Watkinson. A very superior village school was founded here in 1691, by a benevolent resident, Mr. Rawlins, who lived many years after to witness the good effects of his foundation. Probably few schools of similar character have had such a succession of excellent masters. "In this place," says Burton," Henry Lord Beaumont and Alice his wife, by the license of the Abbot of Leicester, built a very fair and stately Chapel, of Ashler stone, in 1388. It was again repaired in 1450, for I have seen a deed of covenants made between Robert Farnham, of Quorndon, of the one part, and a certain Free-mason, for the new building of the steeple, and the repair of the Church, dated 28 Henry VI. It was then new glazed and repaired, as I should guess, by the arms of King Henry VI. standing in the cast window of the Chapel; and at the costs and charges (for the most part) of the Viscount Beaumont, as it should seem, by the coats and matches in the said windows." The arms of Beaumont, quartering Jerusalem, are still in the east window. The Chapel, of which an engraving is given, is one of those unobtrusive and venerable fabrics, that of themselves awaken holy feelings. I visited it for the first time (if an author * There is a passage in Tanner's Notitia Monastica (page 248), which I deem to be of considerable importance, as explanatory both of the origin of the name of Barrow, and of that of these members of that extensive lordship. He says of Barrow in Lincolnshire, "Wulpher, King of the Mercians, gave to that pious man, Cead, or Chad, about the middle of the seventh century, the land of fifty families, as Bede tells us, to build a Monastery at a place called At Barwe, that is, at the wood......some appearance of which remained in his time." This not only accounts for the name of Barrow, but for Woodhouse, Woodthorpe, &c. +8 Esch. 3 Edward IV., No. 30, Leic'. |