sion of the Herveys, who acquired this estate by marriage with the ancient family of the, Drurys. John Hervey was created a peer in 1703, by Queen Anne, by the title of Baron Hervey of Ickworth, and in 1714 was invested by George I. with the more honourable title of Earl of Bristol, Frederic William, who succeeded his father in 1803, is the fifth earl. Ickworth Park is 11 miles in circumference, and contains 1800 acres. The ancient mansion is not remarkable, but the new building was planned upon a very extensive scale by the late earl, who was also bishop of Derry, for the purpose of making it the receptacle of the various works of art which he had collected during a long residence in Italy. It was intended to be composed of a circular building in the centre, connected with the wings by a colonnade on each side. The accomplishment of this plan was frustrated by the circumstance of the earl's collection falling into the hands of the French, in 1798, when his lordship was also confined in the castle of Milan by the republicans. For reasons that are perhaps only known to few, this conduct of the French, which would have hastened the departure of any other person from Italy, seemed to have determined him to remain there till his death in 1803. With a caprice said to have been common to several members of his family, he willed all his disposable property to strangers, including the collections he had made during the latter years of his life. As several obstacles prevented his successor from completing his father's plan, he had at one time serious thoughts of taking down the shell of this new building and selling the materials; but as these would not have reimbursed the expense of the undertaking, it was abandoned, and it has since become a question whether the hand of time will not be left to reduce this building to ruin, which would require an immense sum to complete from its present state. This

D

edifice, which has a southern aspect, and stands a little to the west of the old mansion, is built of what is denominated Roman brick. It was begun about the year 1795. The centre, which is nearly circular, is 140 feet high; the cupola that crowns it is 90 feet in its largest diameter, and 80 in the smallest. It is embellished with a series of Ionic columns between the windows of the lower apartments, and Corinthian between those of the principal floor. Over the windows of the latter are basso relievos from subjects in the Iliad of Homer. Above the entrance, Alexander is seen presenting his father the celebrated horse Bucephalus, which could not be managed by any one but himself, and on each side is a scene from the Olympic games. These have been covered with boards to protect them from the weather, and wanton injury, so frequent in this country. The basso relievos of the first story consist of the following subjects from the Odyssey:— Penelope weaving, Mentor and Telemachus proceeding in quest of Ulysses, the sacrifice, Penelope dreaming of her husband's return, Mercury persuading Calypso to release Ulysses, Ulysses saved from the wreck by Leucothoe, the Harpies, Penelope carrying the bow of Ulysses to the suitors, the hero destroying them, Penelope recognizing her husband, Mercury conducting the ghosts of the suitors to Styx, Ulysses concluding a treaty with the chiefs of Ithaca. The interior of this neglected edifice exhibits a mere shell, with a kind of open wooden staircase to ascend the roof and take a view of the adjacent country. The cupola is crowned with a circular railing, within which the chimnies rise in a single stack, in such a manner as not to be visible on the outside of the building. The intended drawing and dining room, the only apartments bounded by an interior wall, are each 40 feet in length, but from the nature of the building, of unequal breadth. The wings, and the galleries connecting

them with the edifice in the centre, have been run up to the height of only three or four feet. The left wing was designed for an assembly room, and that on the right to contain a gallery of statues on the ground floor, and of pictures above; and in both provision had been made for a circular reservoir of water. The length of the whole building, from each extremity, was to have been 600 feet, and that of each colonnade and wing 60 yards. The designs for this edifice were furnished by Italian artists, and so much of the building as has been erected was under the direction of Mr. Sandys. Two brothers, Italians, named Carvalho, executed the sculpture, mo→ delled after the celebrated designs of Mr. Flaxman. The whole of the expense has not exceeded 40,000l. and the natural reflection of every foreigner upon this edifice must be, that nothing but a want of taste or a want of opulence has prevented its completion.

Returning towards the high road, we cross HORNINGSHEATH, Commonly called Horringer: this formerly had two parish churches, distinguished by the names of Magna and Parva, great and small; but since the parishes were consolidated in 1548, the latter has been totally demolished. As both parishes once belonged to the abbot of Bury, Little Horningsheath Hall is said to have been one of his pleasure houses, where above a century after the dissolution, his arms, together with those of Edward the Confessor, were to be seen, carved and painted in the grand chamber.

HORSECROFT is a hamlet to Horringer, in which the very ancient family of the Lucases resided.

At a small distance between us and the high road from Bury, we arrive at HAWSTEAD, in Domesdaybook Halsted, situated between three and four miles of Bury. The bounds of this parish pass through the north and south doors of the church of the adjacent village of Nowton, so that the perambulating cavalcade proceeds through that edifice in its annual course

to mark the parochial limits. At a small distance from this spot, some years since stood what was called "the gospel oak," or a majestic tree under which the clergyman used to stop in these perambulations, and repeat some prayer proper for the occasion. During the reign of William the Conqueror, it appears that some church stood at Hawsted, though of the period in which the present structure was raised there is no account; its architecture, however, appears to be that of the 16th century. It is constructed of freestone and flints, broken into smooth faces, which by the contrast of their colours produce a very good effect. The porches, buttresses, and embattled parapets, are in general the most laboured parts, not only being mixed with the free stone, but beautifully inlaid with a variety of patterns. Of this inlaying, the lower parts of the steeple exhibit specimens of considerable elegance, in mullets, quatrefoils, interlaced triangles, &c. The walls for about two feet above the ground are of free stone, and project all round in the manner of a buttress, like those of Windsor castle, a circumstance unusual in a country church. The steeple is square, and 63 feet high. The chancel is of a different age and inferior style, its walls being composed of rough flints plastered Till the year 1780 the roof of this church was of thatch, but it was then exchanged for tiles. The body or nave is only 58 feet long, 29 wide, and about 36 to the highest point of the roof, the braces and principals of which are carved, and of the latter, every other is supported by an angel. These angels, however, have been deprived of their heads and wings, and this mutilation was probably performed by Mr. William Dowsing's order. From Stratford, where he lived, he made the circuit of the county for the purpose of effecting this kind of reformation, in the years 1643 and 1644, destroying such images and inscriptions as were deemed superstitious, to the ex

over.

treme regret of the antiquary and lover of the arts. On the upper edge of the font are still to be seen the remains of the fastenings by which the cover was formerly locked down for fear of sorcery! The chancel is thirty-three feet and a half by eighteen, and twenty-four feet high. The ceiling is covered and plastered, and divided into compartments by mouldings of wood, adorned with antique heads and foliage. All the windows have been handsomely painted: several coats of arms of the Drurys and Cloptons still remain, as also some headless figures of saints and angels. The church and chancel are divided by a wooden screen of gothic work; and on this screen, denominated the rood loft, still hangs a relic of Roman Catholic times; this is one of the small bells supposed to have been rung at particular parts of divine service, as at the consecration and elevation of the host, whence these were called sacring, or consecrating bells. These bells are now very rarely seen. In the steeple are three bells, and on the smallest of them this monkish inscription, in the old English character;

Eternis annis, resonet cumpana Joannis.

Within an arched recess in the middle of the north wall of the chancel, and nearly level with the pavement, lies a cross-legged figure of stone, supposed to represent one of the family of Fitz Eustace, lords of the place in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. This monument is no doubt coeval with the chancel, and is very handsome, being elegantly sculptured with foliage, and has a gothic turret rising from the head and feet, connected by a basement at the top. Here is also a flat slab of Sussex marble, seven feet long, on which not the least vestige of an inscription remains. Sir John Cullum supposes this to have been for an ecclesiastic, and observes that stones of this shape