Moat House

“ But it may be that you will find her better. If people are faint, or stunned, they always look very ill."
Eric thanked his uncle and left him. On his way to the Vicarage he met a waggon bearing the shattered carriage and Celia's box to the Moat House; he hurried past it with a shudder, and arrived at his destination in a state of breathlessness. Lawrence Puttenham met him at the front door, and led him silently into the dining-room, looking very grave and sad. ”

“ The present mansion he rebuilt on the same site, in all probability retaining the ancient moat.
The hall is approached through an entrance gateway, giving access to a fine avenue leading directly up a gentle slope to the moat and main drawbridge of the hall. The house, of red brick, wonderfully tinted by the hand of time, is remarkably picturesque, with its twisted chimneys, finely proportioned gables, and beautiful bay windows; and its charm is considerably enhanced by the brickwork, with sturdy buttresses here and there, rising sheer out of the clear and tranquil waters of the moat. ”

“ But the ivy which covered portions of the brickwork hid some of the ravages of age, and helped the moat-house to show a brave front to the world, a well-preserved survivor of an ornamental period in a commonplace and ugly generation. ”

“ Look out!" cried Lionel, catching Harriet's arm. "You nearly went over!"
They were standing close to the edge of a dark declivity, in reality not very steep, yet of sufficient depth to be dangerous to any one coming upon it unawares. This last remnant of the ancient moat, for such it was, lay only a few yards from the oldest wing of the house, yet so artfully was it screened on two sides by dense shrubbery and on the third by a crumbling, ivy-covered wall, once part of the old tower, that its presence was known to only two people at Ipping House—the curate and little An Petronia. ”

“ Meadows lie on each side the road, and on the left is a short lane, leading up to the old manor house, the Moat-house but it is no longer even a farm-house—the moat is choked with mud and reeds, and only grows fine forget-me-nots, and the curious panel picture of a battle, apparently between Turks and Austrians, has been removed. The fields beyond, bordering on Otterbourne Park, are the best for cowslips in the parish. ”

“ What can be more perfect in its way than that stretch of weed-grown moat, sleeping half in the shadow, half in the sunshine, under the venerable city wall, with its bartizans and turrets and embattled gate, and the steep, moss-grown house gables, rising behind it. ”

“ No class have a keener instinct for scandal than the servants of a country-house. They have opportunities of seeing hidden things which nobody else is likely to suspect. And the moat-house servants asserted, with complete unanimity, that there had been nothing between Phil Heredith and Hazel Rath during the time the girl had lived at the moat-house. ”

“ Mr. Tovel's house had had a moat, and this too had been a feature of George's paternal home:
"It was an ancient, venerable Hall, And once surrounded by a moat and wall; A part was added by a squire of taste Who, while unvalued acres ran to waste, Made spacious rooms, whence he could look about, And mark improvements as they rose without; He fill'd the moat, he took the wall away, He thinn'd the park and bade the view be gay." ”

“ It needs many centuries to mellow the conditions for the effect I had witnessed, and we must not be impatient.
The lord and his lady had come out of a mansion that did not look very mediæval, though it had a moat round it, with ducks in the moat, and in the way to its portal a force of footmen to confirm any comer in his misgiving that the house was closed to the public, and to direct him to the pleasaunce beyond. This was a lawned and gardened place, enclosed with a green wall of hedge, and guarded on one side with succession of pedestals bearing classic busts. ”

“ The moat, which had originally been full of water, had been filled in, and had been prettily laid out as a rock garden, where shrubs of various kinds flourished, and flowers peeped between the rough boulders which looked as though nature and not man had placed them there in such picturesque confusion. ”

“ So we deliver the solution to our parable, as we leisurely cross the broad meadow, but as we draw near the house, or Court as it is termed,—our foot is abruptly stayed by a comparatively invisible—until we are close on its edge—but decisive hindrance to nearer approach, and indicative at once of the olden character of the habitation, a deep and wide moat, still well supplied with water, that surrounds the area on which the house stands. ”

“ The road itself has become narrow, and the space between the side row of trees is covered by soft turf, up which those coming to the meet love to gallop, trying the fresh metal of their horses. And the old house itself is surrounded by a moat, dry indeed now for the most part, but nevertheless an evident moat, deep and well preserved, with a bridge over it which Fancy tells us must once have been a drawbridge. ”

“ The moat is now a clear moat again; and good modern gardening, that joins hands so happily with such a beautiful old building, surrounds it on all sides. There was no flower garden when the old place was taken in hand; the only things worth preserving being some of the old orchard trees within the moat to the west. A space in front of the house, on its southward face, inclosed by loop-holed walls of considerable thickness, was probably the ancient garden, and has now returned to its former use. ”

“ The bakehouse and brewhouse should also be isolated, he thinks; but in all these respects his advice was not universally followed, for the whole of these particular places are to be found attached to the house on one or other of contemporary house plans. His next advice is applicable to Moreton Old Hall. "When all the mansion is edified and built, if there be a moat made about it, there should be some fresh spring come to it, and divers times the moat ought to be scoured and kept clean from mud and weeds. ”

“ The proverb “Every man’s house is his castle,” might very readily be appropriated by the Japanese, whose home, however humble it may be in all other respects, is always guarded by a moat. In a feudal mansion the moat was usually deep enough to prove a genuine obstacle. ”

“ From High Rigge we proceeded along a narrow country lane—with gates to open here and there on the way—to a picturesque and interesting old moated house known as Poolham Hall, now doing duty as a farmstead. The house, with the wide moat around, makes a very pleasing picture, but all the interest is external, within is nothing that calls for comment. The moat encircles not only the farm buildings but an ample garden ”

“ This is now above the door of the present house, and in the window above are some portions of stained glass with a coat of arms, Lowther impaling Fleming. A great portion of the moat is still to be seen; it encloses an area of an irregular oblong; the moat is supplied with water by a spring at the north corner. The entrance, a mantle tower and drawbridge were on the north side, next the Church, where the moat is now completely levelled up. ”

“ I turned along the side of the moat, hoping to reach the house front, which was probably modern and boasted a civilised entrance. There must be somebody in the place, for one chimney was smoking. Presently the moat petered out, and gave place to a cobbled causeway, but a wall, running at right angles with the house, blocked my way. I had half a mind to go back and hammer at the door, but I reflected that major-generals don’t pay visits to deserted châteaux at night without a reasonable errand. I should look a fool in the eyes of some old concierge. ”

“ To be sure the stone house at Brionne had in the river Rille a ready-made moat in every way better than the ditch that we have stumbled on at Hauteville. In England, at the same time, we should have been perfectly satisfied with a wooden "aula" as the dwelling place of a powerful thegn, but then we should have looked for it on something of a mound, like the home of Wiggod at Wallingford. Certainly, a frightfully stinking ditch of no great width, compassing a square field, is a poor find after the hopes with which we set out. ”

“ JOHN AMEND-ALL On a certain afternoon, in the late springtime, the bell upon Tunstall Moat House was heard ringing at an unaccustomed hour. ”

“ Below the Library on the west side of the house just above the level of the moat, there is a secret chamber, which communicateth with a passage below the moat that hath an exit in the roof of the small cave in the gully that lieth some two hundred paces westward of the Hall of Holwick. ”

“ The ancient moat is quite clearly traceable, and this at flood–tide is filled by the overflow of the river.
There is a fine half–timbered house in the village (now, alas! split up into small tenements) , which was formerly the hall of the “Guild of the Blessed Virgin.” The church itself consists of chancel, nave, north aisle and chapel, and a south porch, and it has at the western end an embattled tower with pinnacles. The roof, which is probably the original one, is cradle pattern, with the rafters trussed with curved braces. ”

“ The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover no traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We are doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining an elegible spot. ”

“ William Staunton, of Longbridge, communicated the following notices of Fulbroke castle, accompanied by a drawing of a curious steel-yard weight, which was discovered about five years since, in the moat adjoining to a farm-house at Fulbroke, a small parish about three miles distant from Warwick. The moat encloses an oblong parallelogram of about half an acre, now used as an orchard to the farm-house, (which is a substantial modern building just without the moat,) and from the artificial banking of the ground within, it appears to have been the site of an ancient building. ”

“ Completely surrounded by a deep wide moat, access to it was only possible by a brick bridge on the southern side, guarded by a twenty-foot extin{11}guisher-roofed “shot” tower, whose loopholed bulk now served for tool shed below and pigeon-loft above.
Further outbuildings stood outside the moat, a few to the north in the smaller pasture behind the house, but a long broad range of cowshed, stable, and hop-press stretched into the ten-acre “home” or “manor” pasture.
Never, since Alva last marched that way, had the old semi-fortress been so packed with humanity. ”

“ Meanwhile the sledge had arrived in front of the lonely house.
[Pg 60]
CHAPTER VII. Wherein are described the house and the mistress of the house.
It was a house unlike all other houses. Banished beyond the walls of the city, it had to defend itself as best it could. A deep moat filled with stagnant water and covered with green slime completely surrounded it, and the drawbridge which crossed the moat led up to a fortified palisade which formed a second line of circumvallation. But the drawbridge was now drawn up and the portcullis let down. ”

“ Lawrence, once existing there; the pedestal and base are fragments from the ruins of Kirkstead. In a recess, or aumbrey, behind the west door, is a very interesting relic, found, a few years ago, in the moat of the old hall at Poolham, which we described in the previous chapter. We there mentioned the remains of an oratory, or chapel, still standing in the south-west corner of the kitchen garden at the old Hall. Some men were employed in cleaning out the mud from the encircling moat, the season being a very dry one, and the moat almost empty of water. ”

“ The interior arrangements include original fireplaces, carved and painted ceilings, and a chapel. The grounds without and the forest trees beyond are green and luxuriant beyond belief outside the wonders of fairy tales—to whose realms, indeed, Ightham Mote more nearly belongs than to this workaday world. The moat, fed by a crystal stream, is clear and sparkling, and birds and butterflies skim over it and into the thickets of shrubs and wild flowers like so many joyous souls escaped from a life of care and pain to rejoice for ever and ever in sunshine and a careless existence. ”

“ But to reach the church and village one must pass Wilby Old Hall, a romantic building of red brick, with corbie-stepped gables, that peer darkly across the meadows. One cannot resist a closer glance, and the old place well repays that attention. It is now, and long has been, a farmhouse, but was built as a mansion somewhere about the beginning of the seventeenth century. It was when Elizabeth reigned, or in the first years of James I., that the hall first rose within the girdle of its moat: that moat only in part now remaining, but still plentifully stocked with fish. ”

“ Sir Walter Covert, to whose ancestors the manor fell by marriage, was the builder of that Slaugham Place whose ruins yet remain to show his idea of what was due to a landed proprietor of his standing. They cover, within their enclosing walls of red brick, which rise from the yet partly filled moat, over three acres of what is now orchard and meadowland. In spring the apple trees bloom pink and white amid the grey and lichen-stained ashlar of the ruined walls and arches of Palladian architecture, and the lush grass grows tall around the cold hearths of the roofless rooms. ”

“ It is a private residence, and the interior is very charily shown to strangers—on Wednesdays only. The exterior and the moat, however, are always readily accessible, and are very well worth seeing. The lichened castle walls, with their time-stained masonry and vivid patches of red brick, are extraordinarily picturesque, and the windows, occurring at irregular intervals, with the clustered chimneys and mantling ivy, give the place a romantic quaintness all its own. To complete the picture, apple-orchards face two sides of the moat. ”