| Through modern wrought iron gates, across the wide | | | | coat of arms on the front facade (just below the |
| shallow moat and along the gravel drive which curved | | | | loggia) but the stables had a massive crest on the |
| slightly. The island enclosed by the moat is quite large, | | | | front, denoting the pride felt in the horseflesh within. |
| comprising some four or five acres, mostly wooded | | | | In an echo of Rupert Brooke the stable clock said |
| gardens. The moat was first constructed in | | | | ten to three. |
| prehistoric times by our brythonic ancestors (in an | | | | A crest is not the same as a coat of arms. Arms |
| archaeological excavation about sixty years ago the | | | | (which are regulated by the College of Arms in |
| skeletons of two men, buried in sawdust, with | | | | London) are worn on a shield, whereas a crest is a |
| mosaic rings on their arms, were found). DNA tests in | | | | device worn on the top of a knight's helmet. This |
| isolated communities show that the genetic | | | | crest featured a regardant lion (ie looking backwards) |
| descendants of the brythons are still among us. The | | | | holding a crowned head (a decapitated foe whose |
| Roman's built a villa within the moat, and in the | | | | head was thrown to wild beasts?). |
| subsequent two thousand years the residence has | | | | Looking into the Tackroom you could see saddle |
| been rebuilt and rebuilt until its present manifestation | | | | pads, saddles, bridles, whips (stood up in a traffic |
| - plain Regency of 1812, faced in stucco and painted | | | | cone), feed supplements, cleaning materials. |
| cream. A venerable cedar tree obscured with a | | | | Horseshoes on a stable window sill, all carefully |
| verdant veil my first view of the house. | | | | pointing the right way (lest the luck should run out). |
| See photo: | | | | Horseshoes are regarded as lucky because they are |
| In front of the house the moat widens into a lake, | | | | made of iron, which is supposed to repel evil. They |
| and because the building is so close to the water's | | | | also have seven nail holes, which is a lucky number. |
| edge you had to walk right across the front and | | | | Across the lane was the church, built of ironstone, a |
| down a slope before you could look back and get a | | | | Saxon foundation but rebuilt over the ages. |
| complete view of the main facade. Rising three | | | | The Poor Box was carved from a single slab of |
| floors, the top storey had an open loggia with a | | | | wood, with the date 1639, and the inscription: This is |
| rooftop terrace behind (Pevsner says this | | | | God's Treasury cast one mite into it (was this a |
| arrangement was put in after a fire destroyed the | | | | reference to the widow who cast one mite, her |
| attic rooms in the 1950s - a familiar fate of country | | | | entire wealth, into the Temple treasury?). |
| houses lit by candles). There is a legend that inside | | | | Recumbent effigies in the south aisle. Two stone |
| the house is a secret hiding place next to one of the | | | | knights (and another one in the chancel). Obviously |
| fireplaces, and that a recusant priest taking refuge in | | | | knights are mounted on horseback, so horses must |
| this hole suffocated with the heat and smoke, his | | | | have been kept at the hall since at least the middle |
| skeleton being found years afterwards. | | | | ages. |
| At some point a landscape gardener had widened the | | | | Effigies of knights usually show the feet resting on a |
| moat in front of the house so that it became an | | | | dog or a lion, but one of these effigies showed |
| ornamental lake. In the subdued light of a late | | | | puppies either side of the head. It was a worn |
| February afternoon the water looked as mysterious | | | | scultpure, but you could make out the worn shape of |
| as Dozmary Pool. A discarded oar, looking forlorn, | | | | a puppy. He was a man who liked dogs! |
| acted as a reminder of summer boating sessions. | | | | Outside the church the countryside fell away in |
| To the side of the house were the stables, in | | | | gentle slopes. |
| substantial Victorian brick. The main house had a small | | | | |