Wardrobe House. The Close. Salisbury. Evening.]

Our artist, Mr. Fred Roe, in his search for the picturesque, had one
sad and deplorable experience, which he shall describe in his own
words:--

"One of the most weird and, I may add, chilling experiences in
connection with the decline of county families which it was my lot
to experience, occurred a year or two ago in a remote corner of
the eastern counties. I had received, through a friend, an
invitation to visit an old mansion before the inmates (descendants
of the owners in Elizabethan times) left and the contents were
dispersed. On a comfortless January morning, while rain and sleet
descended in torrents to the accompaniment of a biting wind, I
detrained at a small out-of-the-way station in ----folk. A
weather-beaten old man in a patched great-coat, with the oldest
and shaggiest of ponies and the smallest of governess-traps,
awaited my arrival. I, having wedged myself with the Jehu into
this miniature vehicle, was driven through some miles of muddy
ruts, until turning through a belt of wooded land the broken
outlines of an extensive dilapidated building broke into view.
This was ---- Hall.

"I never in my life saw anything so weirdly picturesque and
suggestive of the phrase 'In Chancery' as this semi-ruinous
mansion. Of many dates and styles of architecture, from Henry VIII
to George III, the whole seemed to breathe an atmosphere of
neglect and decay. The waves of affluence and successive rise of
various members of the family could be distinctly traced in the
enlargements and excrescences which contributed to the casual plan
and irregular contour of the building. At one part an addition
seemed to denote that the owner had acquired wealth about the time
of the first James, and promptly directed it to the enlargement of
his residence. In another a huge hall with classic brick frontage,
dating from the commencement of the eighteenth century, spoke of
an increase of affluence--probably due to agricultural
prosperity--followed by the dignity of a peerage. The latest
alterations appear to have been made during the Strawberry Hill
epoch, when most of the mullioned windows had been transformed to
suit the prevailing taste. Some of the building--a little of
it--seemed habitable, but in the greater part the gables were
tottering, the stucco frontage peeling and falling, and the
windows broken and shutt