THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
77
Sir Thomas More, refusing to acknowledge the King's supremacy, was attainted,
and his estates passed to the Crown. It then became a Royal manor, and many
deeds and charters are dated from Wanstead.
The old Manor House was called "Naked Hall Hawe," but when its name was
altered to Wanstead House is uncertain—probably in the time of Edward VI.,
who gave it to Lord Rich, Lord High Chancellor of England, an unscrupulous
man who had grown in favour and wealth under Henry VIII., and profited largely
in suppressing the smaller religious houses, and who is said to have rebuilt the
Hall. Queen Mary was here, not only in early life, but for some days between
her accession and coronation (as the guest of Lord Rich), and Stowe tells us that
her sister Elizabeth rode out here to meet her (1553) with a mighty retinue of 1,000
horse, with knights, ladies, and servants, and on the 3rd August they left Wanstead
to make formal entry into London. As Queen, Elizabeth visited Lord Rich here
in 1561, and after his son had sold it in 1577, to the celebrated Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester, who improved and enlarged the house, Queen Bess was again
entertained here in May, 1578, for four or five days, when the "May Day Masque,"
written by his nephew, Sir Philip Sydney, was performed. A few months later
the Earl offended his Royal mistress by marrying in this house the Countess of
Essex, widow of Walter Devereux. He died in 1588, and from an inventory of
his property (here and at his other houses), now in the British Museum, we find
some interesting particulars of his possessions at Wanstead ; such as three portraits
of Henry VIII , one of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Rich, and 36 others,
all valued at £11 13s. 4d. Seven pieces of tapestry, with the story of Alexander,
value £20. Horses at Wanstead, £316. Plate, jewellery, armour, apparel,
£16,200, but a wretched library, consisting of one old Bible, Fox's "Book of
Martyrs," old and torn, seven Psalters, and a Service Book, the whole valued at
13s. 8d. ; yet his funeral cost the enormous sum, in those days, of £4,000 ! The
old, many-gabled house may be seen forming a background of a picture of Queen
Elizabeth at Welbeck Abbey. A small print (exceedingly scarce), was published
in 1649, by Stent; and more detailed views of house and grounds, by Knyff and
Kip (1700-1720). After sundry changes, including a short tenure by another
favourite, the Earl of Essex, it again escheated to the Crown, and we find it from
1607-16 a Royal palace again, with King James I. residing here alternately with
Theobalds and Havering. He gave it later to his favourite, George Villiers,
Marquis of Buckingham, who soon sold it (1619) to Sir Henry Mildmay,
who was subsequently one of the judges of Charles I. In 1673, Sir William
Mildmay and others conveyed it to Sir Josiah Child, from whom it descended
(1690) to his son, Sir Josiah Child, who died 1704, and the manor passed to his
brother, Sir Richard Child, created Viscount Castlemaine (1718) and Earl
Tylney (1730), thence to his son, the second Earl, who died in 1784, when the
title lapsed. He lived abroad a great deal, and from the letters of Horace Walpole,
we may judge of his lavish generosity when at Wanstead, offering everything to
which his visitors took a fancy. The estate passed to his sister's child, Sir James
Tylney Long, Bart., of Draycot, Wilts, who died in 1794. His young son dying
at the age of II, the whole family fortune and estates became vested in the un-
fortunate Miss Tylney Long, who came of age 1810, and was married in 1812 to
the notorious Tylney Long Pole Wellesley, afterwards Earl of Mornington. She
died, a wreck in life and property in 1826, but he survived till 1857,1 when the
1 It was a suggestive trait of character that the first public act of Mr. Wellesley Pole, after taking
up his residence at Wanstead, was an attempt to shut up the public way through the park, a