"called ye Warren, and ye close or park, called ye Little "Park, containing 375 acres," &c. FORTY HALL. The present mansion or manor house of Forty Hall, above referred to, was built by Sir Nicholas Raynton, from the designs of Inigo Jones, about the year 1629, as appears from the dates on the leaden pipes. The date of 1632 may also be seen near the top of the buildings (probably that of its completion.) It was at this time copyhold, but after its purchase by Sir N. Raynton, it was enfranchised and merged in the Manor of Worcesters. In 1787, on the death of Eliab Breton, who had married the heiress of the Raynton and Wolstenholme families, the whole estate comprising above 1800 acres, and then considered the finest and most compact in Middlesex, was sold in sixty-five lots for £50,000. *Mr. Breton died at Forty Hall, December 19th, 1785, in his 76th year, and his widow died January 20th, 1790, aged 80. "She "was the surviving co-heiress of the Wolstenholme and Raynton "families, whose estate at Enfield (one of the finest in Middlesex) "she conveyed to her husband, and after his death, saw it dismem "bered under Mr. Christie's hammer through the misconduct of "their offspring."-Gent. Mag., Jan. 1790. Forty Hall, with 159 acres adjoining, was purchased by Mr. Armstrong, and on his death in 1799, by James Meyer, Esq., for £11,940. It is now the property and residence of his great nephew, James Meyer, Esq., and consists of above 280 acres within a ring fence. "The interior accommodations of the house (says Dr. Robinson) are numerous and pleasant, and the rooms are well-proportioned and superbly decorated." The beautiful tracery work of the pannelled ceilings is especially deserving of notice. The fine collection of pictures contains "A Holy Family," by Rubens; "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes," by D. Teniers; "The Carnival in the Square of St. Mark's," by Canalletti; "The Three Marys," by Annibal Caracci; "The Toilet," by Gabriel Metzu; "Uriah conveying the letter from David," by Raphael, from the Orleans collection, erroneously ascribed by Dr. Robinson to Albert Durer; "The Tower of St. Mark's," and "A Companion of the Doge's Palace," by Canaletti; "Christ purifying the Temple," by Bassano; and two landscapes by Both, from the Lansdowne collection. There is also a fine portrait of Sir Nicholas Raynton in his civic robes (1643) supposed to be by Dobson, the pupil of Vandyke. The fine old gateway of the stables is still standing, and is a characteristic example of the effect which Inigo Jones could give to the simplest design by the judicious management of light and shadow, and the solid durability of appearance which distinguish all his works. |