Bramshill, Hampshire;

THE SEAT OF

SIR JOHN COPE, BART.

BRAMSHILL, it is reported, was originally erected for the highly accomplished and amiable Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I. The amplitude of its dimensions sufficiently indicate a princely residence. It is built in the very splendid style peculiar to the period; and, having been preserved with care from modern attempts at alteration, it remains a curious example of the prevailing national taste in Architecture in the time of its erection, when much of our old Gothic manner was retained with some Italian improvements, then newly introduced. The wings, or projecting extremities of the building, are comparatively plain, and constructed of brick, with stone dressings to the numerous windows. The centre, built wholly with stone, displays a profusion of ornamental decoration; its portal leads to a vestibule or corridor of three divisions, enriched with an open carved parapet. This portion of the building exhibits a multiplicity of costly work in its ornaments, which are composed of a mixture of Grecian and Gothic, and carried up in rich compartments with pilasters from story to story, surmounted by a pediment in the same character, bearing the Prince's coronet; from the pediment is continued a balustrade, perforated in quatrefoils, in singular taste. The interior of this noble and magnificent pile presents a suite of numerous stately apartments, both large and lofty.

This Mansion was the residence of Edward, eleventh Lord Zouche. Archbishop Abbot, who used to go into Hampshire in the summer for the sake of recreation, was invited by Lord Zouche to hunt in his park at Bramshill, when he accidentally killed that nobleman's keeper, by an arrow from a cross-bow, which he shot at one of the deer: this accident threw the archbishop into a deep melancholy, and he ever afterwards kept a monthly fast, on Tuesday, the day on which this fatal mischance happened; he also settled an annuity of £20 on the widow. Lord Zouche died in 1625.

The House was partly destroyed by fire in Fuller's time, who notices the circumstance.

In 1673, Bramshill was the residence of Sir Andrew Henley, created a baronet, June 30, 1660, but has been for a considerable time the property of the Cope family, one of which built the mansion at Kensington now called Holland House. Its situation is open and commanding, and as a specimen of peculiar architecture, it particularly merits the attention of the curious.

Grange Park, Hampshire;

THE SEAT OF

ALEXANDER BARING, ESQ.

THIS House was originally built by Inigo Jones; and Lord Orford, in enumerating the works of the Architect, mentions the Grange as by far one of the best proofs of his taste: the Hall, which

opened to a small vestibule with a cupola, and the Staircase adjoining, his Lordship considered as beautiful models of the purest and most classic antiquity.

The old building has, however, been lately enlarged, and the exterior wholly changed, by Mr. Drummond, under the direction of Wilkins: if Rome displayed a theatre worthy the imitation of Jones, the classical designs of Wilkins have contributed to restore to the science of Architecture, the more chaste proportions of the ancient examples of Greece. The front elevation of this truly classical building is highly striking the grand portico, which is its principal feature, is of the Doric order of the temple of Minerva at Athens, called the Parthenon, erected by order of Pericles by the celebrated architects, Callicrates and Ictinus; the massive columns are fluted, and rest upon their bases, without an intermediate plinth, agreeably to the ancient model; the only ornaments of the frieze besides the triglyphs, are wreaths, sculptured in high relief, upon the metopæ; obviating any religious association which might arise in the mind of the spectator, from the style of the architecture, without affecting the simplicity of design, or detracting from its majestic and dignified effect. The House, in its original state, presented a front of five stories ; the upper in a ponderous roof of great elevation. The lower contained the offices; these have been removed to the west end of the Mansion. The Terrace, recently raised around the House, conceals the basement floor; the old roof, with the rooms it contained, is wholly removed, and the entablature conceals the attic windows; so that the House now appears to be two stories only in height.

The alterations of the interior were chiefly directed to give a more modern character to the original rooms, excepting the Hall, which underwent a change as complete as the exterior, for the purpose of being in unison with it.

The Views from the House are not extensive, but various and beautiful, over the Pleasuregrounds attached, which have been disposed with much effect by the hand of taste. The family of Henley, in whose possession this estate remained for nearly two centuries, was of considerable repute. Robert Henley became a person of very great eminence in the law. He was knighted, and appointed Attorney-general, in 1756; and the next year, Keeper of the Great Seal. In 1760, he was created a Peer, by the title of Baron Henley, of Grange, in the county of Southampton; in 1761, Lord-chancellor of England; and, in 1764, he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Northington, in the same county. At the trial of Earl Ferrers, he was constituted Lord High Steward for the occasion; and, in 1772, he died, leaving issue, by his wife, Jane, daughter of Sir John Huband, of Warwickshire, Robert, second Earl of Northington, who, in 1783, was appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and was succeeded by the Duke of Rutland in that high office in 1784; he was also a knight of the most ancient order of the Thistle, and died unmarried in 1786, when his honours all expired, and his sisters, becoming his co-heirs, sold the estate of Grange Park to Henry Drummond, Esq. the grandfather of the present gentleman of the same name, who, after returning from his travels, carried into effect the annexed design. The Prince of Wales, soon after his marriage, in 1795, resided for a short time at Grange Park.