210
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
commonly known as Kitty Warner, and she had three sons,
Thomas Jervoise, Robert and Samuel, before her own death,
which occurred before 1775, her husband surviving her. To
him and his children thus passed the entire Warner property,
including "Harts," since Richard Warner was never married.
At Idsworth there are portraits of John Leigh and Kitty Warner
and two others, probably Robert and Richard Warner, the
names of which have unfortunately been lost.
Of "Harts," for more than fifty years the home of Richard
Warner, the fullest account is the following letter in the number
of the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1789 (vol. lix., part ii.,
pp. 583-4.), accompanied by a plate.
"Mr. Urban, June 6.
" The seat of Jervoise Clerk Jervoise, esq., at Woodford, Essex, deline-
ated in Plate 1, is situated at a considerable distance from the road, about
eight miles and three quarters from London, behind several rows of beauti-
ful elms, which form an evening walk for the gentry of the village. It is
called Hearts, and was built in the year 1617, by Sir Humphry Handforth,
master of the robes to king James I. That monarch was much attached to
this house, and used to breakfast here frequently when he took the diversion
of hunting in Epping Forest. By marriage it became the property of the
Onslow family. Arthur Onslow, esq., so famous in the House of Commons
as speaker, and for several parliaments, was born here; his brother, the
General, and several children likewise. When the Onslows removed to an
estate near Guildford in Surrey, this was sold to Mr. Sherman, a linen-draper
in Cheapside. After his decease his daughter sold it, in 1722, to Mrs. Warner,
widow of Mr. John Warner, a banker near Temple Bar, who left it to her
younger son, Richard Warner, esq., in 1743, and he left it to his only niece,
married, in 1763, to Jervoise Clerk Jervoise, esq., member for the county
of Hants, in whose possession it now remains. The house is furnished with
a choice collection of paintings by eminent masters, and a good library of
books, with many choice articles worthy to be seen by the lovers 01 antiquity.
The gardens are laid out with rural and elegant taste. There is a large
and intricate maze, and a thatched house in the middle, with lines Latin
and English, emblematic of the situation, which, I am sorry to observe,
are falling to decay. There is likewise an artificial ruin of an abbey, which
does honour to the designer; the walls, which are entwined with ivy, are
decorated with Gothic windows and painted glass; the broken arches, and
romantic disposition of the ruins, are so artfully contrived as to make the
observer imagine it is in reality what it artificially means. In short, the
house is so curious, and the gardens, etc., so delightful, as to have teen
honoured, at different periods, with the presence of royalty. Yours, &c.,
"A Lover of Antiquity."
In this account there are two slight errors: first, Arthur
Onslow, the Speaker, was not born at "Harts," though his father,