heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

210 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Restoration, tried and condemned, but was, " through the King's mercy,
" pardoned," and resided at Castletown near Limerick.
The other son, Thomas, married Margaret, sister of Henry Lennard,
Lord Dacre.
He, too, was knighted, and made lieutenant of Dover Castle
in the reign of James I. But he alienated the home of his fathers to
Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, who died suddenly 1608. His grandson,
Richard, sold the estate to John Packer, Clerk of the Privy Seal to
Charles I., who rebuilt the little chapel, as I have mentioned, and placed
this inscription over the door " D. O. M. S. Ob felicissimum Caroli
:
" Principis ex Hispaniis reditum sacellum hoc. DD 1625. I. P."
His son, Philip, was the friend of John Evelyn, and married the
daughter of Sir Robert Berkeley of Spetchley, "that honest judge," as
Evelyn calls him, "who, when the Puritans burned down his house at
" Spetchley, nothing daunted, converted his stables into a dwelling, and
" lived there with content, and even dignity, to the end of his days."
Under the
advice of Evelyn, who had just returned from his foreign
tour, and was enamoured of the classic style of architecture, the old stronghold
of Groombregge was rased to
the ground, and the present mansion,
in the form of an H,
built in its stead. His grandson, Philip, died 1697,
leaving one son and two daughters. The former had no children ;
the
latter, marrying, entitled their heirs to the place and manor.
it
I suppose there were disagreements as to its possession, for, eventually,
got into the court of Chancery, and having been purchased by William
Camfield, was sold on his death, in 1781, to Robert Burges, from whom it
descended to the late Rev. Mr. Saint, who once kindly received me at this
most interesting house, and to whose daughter, Mrs. Charles
am indebted for much of the information concerning
the Wallers.
Streatfeild, I
The old broad deep moat still remains, abundantly supplied with
water by a trout-stream which flows through the garden, and falls, in a
picturesque cascade, through an archway leading to the moat.
Traces of the ancient structure may be observed in the basement of
the house, which, with its wide portico supported by pillars of stone, depicted
in the background of the portrait of Philip Packer within, exhibits all the
characteristics
of the Stuart period.
The garden
still bears its ancient character. It is enclosed on all
sides with brick and stone walls, mellowed into a variety of beautiful tints
are covered. The
by time, and by the soft grey lichen with which they
stately walks, the broad green terraces, the trim hedges of yew and laurel,
carry the mind back to the time when Evelyn planned
and laid out the
gardens and walked therein. It is indeed, what he has himself described,
" a pretty, melancholy seat, well wooded and watered."