Relhan Collection : 224 View of hall. William Lord Allington d. 1684 at his house at Horseheath

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Derived from an original dated 1720 </p><p>Apparently a painted-over copy of a print derived from the elevation and plan published in C Campbell’s <i>Vitruvius Britannicus</i> (1720).Relhan’s drawing has been extended out in all directions over the margin. ’The 3rd Lord Alington was MP for Cambridge 1664 to 1681, Lord Lieutenant of the County 1680-1685, and fought the Ottomans in Hungary. 1679 - 1684 he was Constable of the Tower of London and was created Baron of Wymondley. It was he who rebuilt the old Horseheath Hall, beginning work in 1663. The architect was the eminent Sir Roger Pratt, who was building Kingston Lacy in Dorset and Clarendon House at the same time. Horseheath Hall was on a similar grand scale. In 1670, John Evelyn dined with Lord Alington who, he says in his <i>Diary, </i>had <i>'newly built a house at great cost, little less than twenty thousand pounds. . . standing in a park with a sweet prospect and stately avenue, but water still defective. The house also has its informities'</i>. It was red brick and stood on the highest ground in the park. The main 2-storeyed block had ten bays, a balustraded roof with an octagonal cupola (the gilded copper ball from Boulogne was placed here), and ranges to N and S for stables and offices. The gardens were planted with bewildering varieties of peaches, nectarines, apricots and figs. The house was finished by 1665, but saw tragedy with the deaths of 2 young wives and their babies (Catherine and daughter 1662, Juliana and son William in 1667. However, Juliana’s first child Juliana did survive). Lord Alington then spent much time in France, from where we have his unhappy correspondence with his brothers Hildebrand and Argentine, preserved in the British Library, for they were an affectionate family. Things were even worse when 23-year old Argentine was killed in battle. Lord Alington married a third wife, Diana, daughter of the Duke of Bedford, and she bore a daughter, Katherine, 1677. A son and heir, the 5th Giles, was born 1680. Lord Alington, died of apoplexy at the Tower of London in 1684, and his heir Giles, who inherited age 4, died at Eton when he was 11, bringing to an end the male Alington line. Horseheath was entailed and the estate was so encumbered with legacies and law suits that the only heir, Hildebrand, bachelor uncle of the last young lord, sold what remained to John Bromley, a Barbados sugar planter who began alterations to the house and garden, died 7 years later and left it to his son, who died 1718. Both Bromleys were MPs for Cambs, as was Henry, the next heir, until he was made Lord Montfort in 1741. Henry spent lavishly, employing William Kent to re-furnish all the rooms in the best Georgian taste, and on the gardens. He was a great friend of William Cole and was considered a fine connoisseur who entertained generously. Unfortunately he was also a gambler, and on New Year’s Eve 1755 he gave a lavish party at White’s in St James’, London, then shot himself, leaving the impoverished estate to his equally extravagant son Thomas. ‘<i>Unfortunately, this young man, much to Cole's grief, developed into an intemperate, riotous, rackety man with a taste for gambling</i>’ summarises Catherine Parson (1948). He still spent vast amounts on the Hall and Park, famously including a summer house and menagerie in Hare Wood where monkeys rode on horseback and there were many statues, a large orangery, icehouse, colourful deer, well-stocked fishpond and boats, ‘<i>an elegant and noble library’</i> (Cole), many pictures which Cole lists, including some by Claude Lorraine, Poussin, Lely, Kneller and Titian as well as family portraits. He also married inadvisably, as Cole correctly noted. He tried but failed to sell the mortgaged estate in 1775, so everything from fireplaces to foreign birds were auctioned. The last items went by 1777. Thomas sold the whole estate to Stanlake Batson, another man who made money in Barbados. He demolished the Hall in 1792. Bricks were used in neighbouring houses, and wrought-iron gates of c. 1670 survive at Trinity and St John's Colleges and at Cheveley rectory. The Batsons held the reduced estate as farmland until Stanlake Henry Batson took what money he could from the estate and ran off to New Zealand. His son sold the remaining land to T Parsons, a local farmer, in 1925, and he sold it on in parcels. </p><p>Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Palmer 1932; Parsons 1948; VCH 1978</p></p>