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Basildon Park, Berkshire;

THE SEAT OF

SIR FRANCIS SYKES, BART.

THE Estate at Basildon, in Reading Hundred, formerly belonged to the family of Vane or Fane, and was the principal residence of Charles, Viscount Fane, son and heir of Sir Francis Fane, K. B., third son of Francis, first Earl of Westmoreland, of that race. Charles Fane, Esq. of Casildon, was appointed of the Privy Council to King George I. in 1714, and to George II. on his accession. He was elevated to the Peerage by patent, dated 22d April, 1718, by the titles of Viscount Fane, and Baron of Lough-Guire, Co. Limerick. He married Mary, the youngest daughter of Alexander Stanhope, Esq., and sister to James, Earl Stanhope, and, dying at Basildon, 7th July, 1744, left issue Charles, second Viscount Fane, and four daughters. Charles, the second viscount, died without issue, when his sisters became his coheiresses, of whom Judith married John, fourth Earl of Sandwich, and Mary, Jerome de Salis of Switzerland.

Francis Sykes, Esq. purchased the Manor and Estate of Basildon about the year 1766, of the Countess of Sandwich and Madame Salis, and erected the present noble Mansion from the designs, and under the direction, of John Carr, of York, a celebrated architect. It is constructed entirely of stone, and consists of a large central building and two wings, presenting a regular and extensive front, elegant in all its proportions. The corridor, in the centre of the building, is in excellent taste, rising from a rustic basement, after the Italian style, and is ornamented with four Ionic columns supporting their entablature, and a pediment; the frieze is plain, but the cornice is particularly bold and prominent: this is carried entirely round the centre structure, which is nearly quadrangular, and contains, exclusive of the basement story, one principal floor, with chambers above, but no attics. The wings are each surmounted by a pediment, and contain, on the basement, the domestic offices. The stables and coach-houses are at a short distance from the House, concealed by a plantation not introduced in our View.

The principal apartments are spacious and elegant: in particular, the Grand Saloon, which is painted in basso relievo by T. De Bruyn, in which he has produced the effect of prominence with great success: the ceiling, of stucco, is also very beautiful. Amongst the pictures which adorn the walls, is a very fine large Landscape by Berchem, with Cattle and Bagpiper. A Woman suckling a Child, &c. A most excellent Hawking Subject, by Wouvermans, a perfect gem. The Robinette, Sir J. Reynolds. A Sea-piece, gentle breeze, Vandervelde. Two by Backhuysen; others by Both, De Heem, Breughel, &c. &c.

This Mansion is situated about eight miles north-west from the town of Reading, between Pangbourn and Streatley, on the road to Wallingford: the Park extends for a considerable distance on the one side, while on the other is seen the mazy windings of the river Thames, which here divides the county from Oxfordshire. From the Lodge Gates is a singularly beautiful drive, to the carriage front of the Mansion, represented in the View; before it, spreads a fine and smooth lawn, skirted by gentle undulations, and bounded by hills covered with beech and other trees. Francis Sykes, Esq., the founder of the present Mansion, is supposed to have derived his descent from the family of Sykes, seated at Sykes Dyke, near Carlisle, in Cumberland, the origin of the family of Sykes of Sledmere. The Arms vary a little from the latter branch, and are, Argent, an eagle with wings expanded, proper, between three fountains; on a canton gules, a caduceus or. He was created a Baronet 24th March, 1781.-Sir Francis William Sykes, the second Baronet, married Mary Ann, the eldest daughter of Major Henniker, Esq., brother of Lord Henniker, by whom he had four children. Lady Sykes, in attending one of her sons in the scarlet fever, at Elberfield in Germany, caught the infection, and died in her twenty-fifth year, 27th February, 1804: the same fatal consequence attended her husband's assiduity to her, and he fell a victim to the same disease on the 7th of March following. Their remains were conveyed to Basildon, and interred in the family vault. He was succeeded in his titles and estates by his son, Sir Francis Sykes, the present and third Baronet.

THE SEAT OF

RICHARD BENYON DE BEAUVOIR, ESQ.

ENGLEFIELD HOUSE is in the hundred of Reading, and deanery of Newbury, about six miles west of Reading, and forms a conspicuous object to the north of the Bath road. At a very early period, this Manor was held under the baronial family of Somery. But a family of still greater antiquity, who derived their name from the village, more particularly claims notice in this place. John Englefield, who lived in the reign of Henry III. is represented, by the pedigrees of the family, to be the sixth in descent from the first settler of the name at this village. Roger de Englefield was knight of the shire in 1307, whose descendants frequently filled the same post, and also served the office of sheriff. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, we find two of the family discharging the functions of judges. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth this manor became forfeited to the Crown, owing to the conviction of Sir Francis Englefield, for being concerned in the plot of rescuing Mary Queen of Scots out of the hands of the English sovereign. The act of attainder being passed, a grant of the Manor was made to the celebrated secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham.

John, Marquess of Winchester, became possessed of the Englefield estate, by marrying the Lady Honora Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Clanricard, by the daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Walsingham. Englefield House, exhibited in the annexed engraving, was built by the Marquess after the demolition of Basing House in Wiltshire, where he had made so noble a defence against the Parliamentary army during the troubles in the reign of Charles I. In a treatise, called "Counsel and Advice to all Builders," published in 1663, by Sir Balthazar Gerbier, the author, in his dedication to the Marquess of Winchester, passes a high compliment upon that nobleman, for the taste displayed in the erection of Henfelde House, as he calls it. He describes it as "a wellseated palace, with a wood at its back, like a mantle about a coat of arms;" and and adds, that" its present satisfaction must diminish its owner's grief for the loss of Basing."

Upon the death of the Marquess, his only surviving son, Lord Francis Paulet, took possession of the Englefield estate, and bequeathed it upon his demise to an only daughter Anne, who married the Rev. Nathan Wrighte, a younger son of the Lord Keeper Wrighte. Upon the death of Nathan Wrighte, Esq. in 1789, Englefield devolved to the late Richard Benyon, Esq. son of Governor Benyon, by the widow of Powlett Wrighte, Esq. elder brother of the last mentioned Nathan. The present proprietor of this seat, grandson of the Governor, in 1822 took the additional name of De Beauvoir; having, in 1814, taken the names of Powlett Wrighte.

To return to the Englefield family.-Francis Englefield, nephew of Sir Francis above-mentioned, was, upon the accession of James I. to the English throne, in consideration of his uncle's sufferings in the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, created a Baronet, being described of Wotton Basset, in Wiltshire. His posterity occasionally resided at a house in this village, which had been for so many generations the abode of their ancestors. This house was sold in 1792 by Sir Henry Charles Englefield, to the father of the present proprietor.

In the north aisle of the chancel of the parish church are several monuments of the Englefield family, for whom it was built as a burial-place in 1514. In the south aisle is a monument to the memory of the famous John, Marquess of Winchester, the defender of Basing House, who died in 1674, with an epitaph from the pen of Dryden, appropriately laudatory. Mr. Benyon de Beauvoir is patron of the rectory.

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