Old England: A Pictorial Museum (page 10/48)

32.—Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire

An engraving of Silbury Hill, near Avebury; a man leads a team of horses pulling a hay wain, on top of which sits a boy. A man and woman walk alongside. In the background [...] [more...]

33.—Carnbré Castle

There are two places called Carn Brae in Cornwall; one is the site of a medieval chapel and the other a castle. I think that this is the castle, near Redruth. [more...]

1672.—Hulme Hall, Lancashire.—Front View.

Hulme Hall, Lancashire (Fig. 1672), may be looked on as a fair specimen of the very numerous timber-houses that form so conspicuous a class in the domestic architecture of Elizabeth’s time. And most [...] roofs, and numerous projections, their carvings and their pinnacles. Hulme Hall no longer exists. It was pulled clown a short time since. Our engraving was taken just before its demolition. The place belonged to the family of Prestwick from the middle of the fifteenth to about the middle of the seventeenth century. A curious mystery may be said still to attach to the spot. The dowager Lady Prestwick, during the Civil War, encouraged her son, who belonged to the Royal party—but apparently had been wavering in his allegiance on account of pecuniary difficulties— to remain firm to the Royalist cause, saying she had treasure to supply him with. It was supposed she referred to some hidden stores about Hulme. But when she was dying she was speechless, and so, if she had a secret of the nature supposed, it was buried with her. Nothing remarkable has since been discovered at Hulme. [more...]

34.—Stones at Stanton Drew

Stanton Drew stone circles lie on private land today, so you need permission to visit them [but see comments below]. The Great Circle is one of the largest megalithic stone circles in England. The date from the [...] [more...]

35.—Round Tower of Donoughmore.

“It is easy to understand how the same religion prevailing in neighbouring countries might produce monuments of a similar character; but we find the same in the far east, in lands separated from ours by pathless deserts and wide seas. So it is with those remarkable structures, the Round Towers of Ireland; which were considered ancient even in the twelfth [...] [more...]

1800.—Tric-trac, by Teniers.

Four men are playing at dice, a game called tric-trac. A discarded clay pipe on the floor, together with a wine-jug and an open tankard, hint at moral excesses. The men wear seventeenth-century costumes; one has a feather in his hat. The engraving is by S. Sly: probably the wood-engraving company of Stephen Sly, who also did a lot of work for the Illustrated London News. It is made after a [...]A Game of Tric-Trac. In the original painting the men are in a guardroom and there are plate mail and a spear in the foreground. [more...]

36.—Kit’s Coty House near Aylesford, Kent

Kit’s Coty House is a neolithic chambered tomb. It is mentioned in Pepys’ diary, but has suffered damage since this plate was made. [more...]