18
OLD LOUGHTON HALL.
" Imprimis, the mannor or mansion house contains a Hall, a
Buttry, Kitchen, Larder, Bakehouse, Pastry, Mylkhowse, Wash-
howse, and eight other Lodgings, with faire Lodginge and greate
Roomes over the said Roomes new built and redified at the chardgs
of Sir Robert Wroth, the now ffarmer thereof; with two barnes of
nine bayes a peece, two duble stables, brewhouse, Garnerhowse and
sundry other out offices and Lodgings ; with an orchard and a garden
now in plantinge, all consisting of Six acres and one rood of ground,
valued at, per annum, the Repair and the late new building con-
sidered—vj li. xiijs. iiijd."
The rest of the document is taken up with the lands and other
appurtenances of the manor, the gross annual value of which is
stated to be £768 2s. 10d. The nett value, after deduction of the
rent reserved (£58 8s. 4d.), and one-fourth "in respect of feeding
of His Majesty's deer, both red and fallow, upon all the grounds
throughout the said manor," is set down as £517 13s. 91/2d. The
timber, separately valued, and taken as 1,028 loads, is said to be
worth £3,028. Just one year later, on June 15, 1613, a grant in fee
of the manor,13 with the advowson of the Rectory, was made to Sir
Robert and the Lady Mary Wroth, in consideration of the payment
by them of £1,224, and a fee-farm rent of £58 8s. 4d.
It appears, therefore, that, relying on the length of his lease, or,
perhaps, having his subsequent purchase already in view, Sir Robert
Wroth, the younger, rebuilt Loughton Hall; but of this the allusion
in the survey appears to be the only existing evidence. It is pos-
sible, however, that an allusion to Sir Robert's rebuilding of the
house is intended in the following passage from his wife's book :—14
" Hee replyed, the place hee was on was called the Forrest
Champion . . . a little way from thence hee told him was a faire
house, where a noble Knight and his Lady liued within a part of
the same Forrest, which they had inclosed, and made like an orderly
ciuil place, from the others wildnesse, and shut themselves within a
Pale ; woods were within this place, the rest all Heath and Rocks,
scarce a Bush, but no tree that could sheltre one from a small
shower. . . . The Knight was a braue Gentleman . . . his Lady a
young woman, cheerefull and pleasant, the daughter of a great
Lord,15 and Sister to as fine a gentleman as was in that kingdom."
13 D. of Lanc.: Div. xii., B. 26; and Originalia: 11 Jac. I., part 4.
14 "The Countesse of Montgomerie's Urania," by the Lady Mary Wroath, p. 534.
15 The Lady Mary was daughter to Robert Sydney, Baron Penshurst, and Viscount Lisle;
and, later, Earl of Leicester.