Hinton St. George, Somersetshire;

THE SEAT OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN POULETT,

EARL POULETT.

THE family of Powtrell were the ancient owners of the Manor of Hinton St. George; and from them it passed into the possession of the Denebands, and so remained for several generations until the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Deneband, with Sir William Paulet, Knight; upon which the manor was transferred to that ancient family, who were afterwards ennobled with the

Barony.

Hercules, Lord of Tournon, in Picardy, who came into England with Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, third son of Henry II., according to a custom then prevalent, assumed the name of Paulet, or Poulett, from the place of his settlement near Bridgewater. His descendant Sir John Poulett, who died in the reign of Richard II., had issue two sons, Thomas and William; the former, ancestor of the Earls Poulett; the latter, of the Dukes of Bolton and Marquesses of Winchester. It was by the marriage of Sir William Poulett, son of the elder brother, Thomas, with the heiress of Deneband, that the Hinton Estate came into the family of the Pouletts.

Sir John Poulett, of Hinton St. George, the eighth in descent from the above-named Thomas, was created in June, 1627, Baron Poulett; in December, 1706, John the fourth baron was further advanced in the peerage by the title of Viscount Hinton and Earl Poulett. This nobleman stood high in favour at court, in the reign of Queen Anne, and was appointed by her Majesty, First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord Steward of the Household; he was also made a Knight of the Garter. As a mark of particular esteem, the Queen was graciously pleased to become one of the sponsors at the baptism of the Earl's fourth son; who thereupon was named Anne. His Lordship was succeeded by his son John, and he dying unmarried, in November, 1764, his next brother, Vere, the third Earl, became his successor. This nobleman died in April, 1788, when his titles and estates devolved upon his son John, the father of the fifth and present Earl.

Sir Amias Poulett, who was knighted for his gallant behaviour at the battle of Newark-upon-Trent, in June, 1487, is supposed to have built the noble mansion of Hinton St. George; and indeed it bears all the characteristic features of the period at which he lived.-The South front, which is the View annexed, exhibits an extensive range of buildings in the castellated style, which has recently been considerably improved by the present noble proprietor. The principal carriage entrance is on the west side of the mansion. At the end of the approach, stands a finely proportioned Tower; under a Gothic arch is the entrance to the grand spacious Hall, or Saloon, which, in its construction and elegance, is scarcely to be equalled in the kingdom. This magnificent room leads to an elegant suite of apartments which contain an extensive collection of pictures and other objects of art and virtu. The body of the edifice is principally of stone, and is partially surmounted by a pierced parapet. The gardens attached to the mansion on this side are low, which affords a fine opportunity for cultivating the tastefully laid out grounds. The park immediately connected with the gardens is on a gentle eminence, from which our View was taken; it commands an extensive prospect over the greatest part of the county.

The parish of Hinton, situated about three miles north-west of Crewkerne, is small. The adjunct of St. George, to which saint the church is dedicated, is generally used to distinguish this from several other towns in the county of the same name. The Living is a Rectory in the Deanery of Crewkerne, and in the gift of Earl Poulett. The following notice of the Manor of Hinton is extracted from the Domesday survey :—

"William himself holds Hantone. In the time of King Edward it gelded for thirteen hides. The arable is twelve carucates. Thereof in demesne are five hides, and there are four carucates, and five servants and sixteen villanes, and twenty-four cottagers with ten ploughs. There are two mills, of seven shillings and sixpence rent, and sixty acres of meadow. A wood one mile in length and half a mile broad,"

John Poulett, Earl Poulett, Viscount Hinton of Hinton, St. George, in the county of Somerset, was born in July, 1783; and succeeded his father, John the late Earl, in January, 1819. In September, 1820, his Lordship married Charlotte-Fanny-Lucy, daughter of Henry Berkeley Portman, Esq., of Bryanston House, and M.P. for the county of Dorset. Viscount Hinton, his Lordship's eldest son, born in June, 1821, is heir-presumptive to the titles and estates. A second son, named Vere, was born in August, 1822.

Motto:-Gardez ta foy.

Here is a very valuable collection of Pictures belonging to Lord Poulett, as well as at the

NEW-YORK

THE SEAT OF

WILLIAM DICKINSON, ESQ. M.P.

THE Manor of King-Weston was purchased by Caleb Dickinson, Esq., grandfather of the present owner, of Mr. Swadling, whose property it became through an heiress of the Bower family.

It is a place of great antiquity; the name being a corruption of Chinwardestune or Kinwardestone, signifying the Town or Habitation of Kinward, a Saxon noble. Kinward was a Thane of royal extraction. At the conquest, this manor was seized on by William the Norman, and given, with several others in this county, to Eustace, Earl of Boulogne. The Norman record gives the following particulars of this place :—

"Ida, Countess of Bolonia, holds of the King, Chinwardestone. Ulveva held it in the time of King Edward, and gelded for five hides. The arable is eight carucates. Thereof in demesne are two hides, and three virgetes: and there are two carucates, and six servants, and eight villanes, and eight cottagers with five ploughs. There are twenty-five acres of meadow, and twenty-two acres of pasturage. A wood three furlongs long and one acre broad. It was and is worth six pounds."

King-Weston continued in the same line of possession till A.D. 1114, when Mary, Countess of Boulogne, sister to Matilda, Queen of Henry I., conferred it on the Cluniac Abbey of Bermondsey.

On the dissolution of the monastery, Henry VIII., granted, by patent, the manor of KingWeston, amongst other things, to James Tutt, Nicholas Hame, and their heirs. The patentees afterwards made over the same to Sir Thomas Moyle, Knight, and his heirs. Sir Thomas left the manor to Thomas Kempe, his grandson, who sold the same to Matthew Smyth, of Long-Ashton, Esq., from whom it passed into the family of Bower.

The mansion of King-Weston is built of fine grey stone, found on the estate. The interior is divided into many commodious and elegant apartments, containing a choice collection of pictures, and some very fine Italian bronzes, copies of the best Greek statues; and also of the statues of the 15th century now at Rome and Florence. The View presented in the accompanying Plate, shews the two principal fronts, and was sketched from the gardens. The carriage front is ornamented with an elegant Portico of the Doric order, recently executed by W. Wilkins, Esq.; the Portico and mouldings are of Bath stone.

The village of King-Weston is finely situated twelve miles south from Wells. Most of the houses are built of blue stone, and are in general very neat. This place is memorable for a signal defeat, which the Rebels of Devonshire and Cornwall experienced in the third year of the reign of Edward VI., when Sir Hugh Powlet, Knight, pursued them after their discomfiture by the king's forces at Exeter, and took their leader prisoner.

The Church is a small neat building, situated on the highest the part of the parish, surrounded with lofty elms and chesnut trees. It has an embattled tower, containing a clock and three bells. Against the north wall of the chancel is an elegant monument of black and white marble with this inscription:—“ M. S. Caleb Dickinson hic sepulti, qui obiit 6 Aprilis 1783; et Saræ uxoris, apud Bristoliam sepultæ, quæ obiit 1m. Julii 1766. Posuit Gulielmus filius, Anno 1783.Arms:-Or, a bend engrailed, between two Lions rampant, gules. The Living is a Rectory in the Deanery of Cary.

In the chancel is deposited a chair, formerly belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It is of oak, the back divided into two compartments; embellished with Gothic carvings in relief; on one side a shield bearing a crosier with the initials R. W. for Richard Whiting, last Abbot of Glastonbury; and on the other side, a shield charged with a cross botoné, between two leopards' heads in chief, and in base two cinquefoils. This chair was purchased by the late Mr. Dickinson of Mr. More, of Greinton, and deposited here as a relic of monastical antiquity.

William Dickinson, Esq., the present Lord of the Manor of King-Westen, has for many years represented the County of Somerset in Parliament.

Enmore Castle, Somersetshire :

THE SEAT OF THE RIGHT HON. JOHN PERCEVAL,

EARL OF EGMONT.

THE situation of Enmore Castle is on a gently rising ground in the midst of a fine enclosed country, about five miles from Bridgewater, and eight from Taunton. The present Mansion-house was built by John Perceval, first Earl of Egmont, on the spot where formerly stood the old family residence of the Malets. It is a large quadrangular embattled pile, constructed of a dark reddishcoloured stone, flanked at each angle by a low square machiolated tower; with bastion and two circular towers and drawbridge at the principal entrance leading to a spacious court yard (See the annexed Engraving.) The offices are under ground, and look out upon a dry fosse, forty feet wide, and sixteen feet deep, which surrounds the Castle. On the opposite side of the fosse, under the lawn, is another range of buildings, consisting of the stables and out-houses, the entrance to which is found at the side of the hill, on the approach to the mansion. The interior of the Castle is splendidly fitted up, and contains many family portraits, and, among other objects of interest, the Bed on which the late Queen Caroline expired.

Enmore, in the time of the Conqueror, belonged to Roger de Curcelle, son of Wandril de Leon, of a noble Norman family. Shortly after, the Estate became the property of the Malet family, in whose possession it remained for several centuries. William Malet, or Mallet, the first of that name of whom mention is made in history, was a distinguished partisan on the Norman side, at the battle of Hastings, and with others was deputed by William, to see the body of Harold decently interred after the engagement. He left issue two sons, Robert and Gilbert, the latter of whom succeeded his father in the Somerset Estates. This Gilbert was a great favourite with King William, by whom he was appointed High Chamberlain of England; the king likewise granted him estates in several parts of the kingdom. In the dispute between Henry I., and his brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy, Gilbert Mallet sided with the latter whereupon he was stripped of his possessions, and banished the kingdom. His grandson, William, was the last in the male branch of the Mallet family.

In an ancient record of the twelfth century, mention is made of Baldwin Mallet de Enmore. This Baldwin was the son of Hugh Mallet, whose father, William, a distant relation of the abovementioned Gilbert, had been included in the same sentence of banishment. William left two sons, the latter of whom, named Hugh, during the disgrace of his father, assumed the name of Fitchet, and from him descended many families who settled in the west of England, and retained that cognomen. Upon the reconciliation of the family to the king's favour, Baldwin, the eldest son of Hugh, again took the surname of Mallet, and located at Enmore, which ever after became the family residence. Baldwin married Emma, daughter of Ralph de Neville, by whom he left issue Sir William Mallet, who was possessed of Enmore in the time of Richard I.

Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Mallet, who died in the reign of Charles II., married John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, and by him, who died in 1684, she had three daughters, the eldest of whom, named Anne, married Henry Bayntum, Esq., of Spy Park, in the County of Wilts. This manor in consequence came into the Bayntum family, and from them it descended to Sir Edward Bayntum Rolt, Bart., who, by virtue of an Act of Parliament, sold the same, with other estates, to James Smith, Esq., from whom it was conveyed to the Earl of Egmont, grandfather of the present Earl.

John Perceval, Earl of Egmont, Viscount Perceval of Kanturk, Baron Perceval of Burton, and a Baronet of Ireland; Lord Lovel and Holland of Enmore, in the County of Somerset, was born in August 1767, and succeeded his father, John James, the third Earl, in February, 1822. His lordship married, in March, 1792, Bridget Wynn, niece of Thomas, first Lord Newborough, and has issue one son, namely, John James, Lord Perceval, who is his Lordship's heir.

Sir John Perceval, first Earl of Egmont, was created Baron Perceval of Burton, afterwards Viscount Perceval of Kanturk, and lastly Earl of Egmont, in the reign of George II. His Lordship married Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Parker, of Morley, Bart., whose ancestor, Sir William Parker, Standard Bearer to Richard III., married Alice Lovell, sole heiress of Francis, Viscount Lovell and Holland, who was attainted for high treason in 1485. The right therefore to these titles centered in his Lordship's wife, but, owing to the Act of Attainder, no claim could be preferred. His late Majesty, George III., was however pleased, in May, 1762, to bestow upon John, second Earl of Egmont, the dignity of a Peer of Great Britain, by the title of Lord Lovell and Holland, Baron of Enmore, in the County of Somerset. The late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was assassinated, was a son of John, second Earl of Egmont, brother to the late and uncle to the present Earl.-Motto: Sub cruce candida.