ESLYNGE HALL, OTHERWISE ENFIELD HOUSE, or LOVELL PLACE. "Where throngs of knights and barons bold In weeds of peace high triumphs hold Of wit or arms, while both contend L'ALLEGRO. Great antiquarian and historic interest attaches to the now forgotten site of Elsynge Hall, once the scene of royal magnificence, and thronged with the sage counsellors and the brilliant courtiers of Elizabeth. Elsynge Hall was for several years the residence of Edward VI. and his sister during their childhood, and Holinshed relates how, in 1543, "on New Year's-day the "noble Scottish prisoners departed from London, and "roade to Enfield to see the Prince, and dined there "that day, greatly rejoicing to beholde so proper and "towardly an ympe." There can be no doubt that this was the residence of Queen Elizabeth after she came to the throne. It is distinctly stated by Norden to have been "builded by an Earle of Worcester," and is described by him as being a "Howse or Palace of Queen Eli.," in his map of Myddlesex (1593), where it is represented as surrounded by a park-paling enclosing the "New-park," and about a mile distant from the town, where he places another similar enclosure for the Old-park, which adjoined the Manor House of Enfield. Both these parks are marked in the same way in Saxton's map (1579), in Speed's (1608), and in the famous atlas of Blaeu, the pupil of Tycho Brahe (a sheet of which is worth its weight in gold). In the account of Sir Thomas Lovell's funeral, the house is stated to have been "a good myle distant from the Parische-churche." Weever ranks it among the princely houses heritable by the Crown; and Vallance, in his tale of Two Swannes, calls it "Enfield House yt longs unto our Queene." In the memoirs of Carey, Earl of Monmouth, it is stated that in the year 1596, the Queen came from Theobalds to dinner to Enfield House, and had toils set up in the park to shoot at bucks after dinner. The Court was resident here in the summer of 1561, and went up to St. James's in July, on which occasion such was the state of the roads, that "the hedges and ditches were cut down to make the next way for her." The Court was again here from September 8th, to the 22nd, 1561, and from July 25th to 30th, in 1564, and in July, 1568, as will be more particularly alluded to in the life of Sir Walter Raleigh. When the Manor of Worcesters was granted to the Cecils, Elsynge Hall was reserved to the Crown, but in 1641 it was sold by Charles I. along with the "Little Park" and "the Warren" adjoining, (part of the Duchy of Lancaster) to Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. It was the celebrated widow of this nobleman, who was said by Dr. Donne, to "know well how to discourse of all things, from predestination down to slea-silk," and who wrote the spirited letter to Sir J. Williamson, Secretary of State, who had presumed to propose a candidate for her borough of Appleby: "I have been bullied by an usurper, I have been neglected by a court, but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man shan't stand. ANNE, Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery." It is the fashion of these enlightened days to doubt every thing best worth believing, and the authenticity of this letter is doubted by Lodge, chiefly on the ground that "no instance can be found of the verb stand being used at that time in the sense to which it is here applied." It may be found so used in the life of Bishop Sanderson, at least seven times, speaking of his "standing" for the place of procter, in 1614. The baptism of five of her children is recorded in the parish registers. Elsynge Hall has long been pulled down, but its site is still discernable towards the bottom of the avenue at Forty Hall, between the house and the Maidenbridge-brook. Here, in dry seasons, the outlines of an extensive fabric may be traced on the ground by the withering of the grass;-the remains of foundations have frequently been dug up, and about the year 1830, under a lime tree in the avenue, an unfortunate bullock fell through the decayed brickwork into a vault below. 66 In addition to Forty Hall and the Manor of Worcesters, Sir Nicholas Raynton purchased "a copyhold house, "described in the survey of Enfield (says Dr. Robinson) as sometime Hugh Fortee's, and late Sir Thomas Gurney's," to which he curiously adds that Sir Hugh Fortee built the mansion called Forty Hall, between the years of 1629 and 1632, and gave name to it. Hugh Fortee died in the previous century, and it is certain that "Forty Hill" was known by this name at least as early as 1564. In a deed of that date (penes H. C. B. Bowles, Esq.) a parcel of land is described as being bounded on the east by the road leading from Friday Street " versus ffortie." MYDDELTON HOUSE. Myddelton House was purchased in 1724 by Michel Garnault, whose descendant, Daniel Garnault, died unmarried in 1809, leaving the estate, together with his shares in the New River, to his sister Anne, wife of the late Henry Carington Bowles. The present villa was built in 1818, by this gentleman, on the site of the old house known as Bowling Green House, and was named after Sir Hugh Myddelton, the patriotic but ill-requited |