KNOWLE PARK, KENT. Poor Turk! can thy Prophet do nought for thee more? Cast from thee thy Koran, Heaven's Truth be thy guide, 103 KNOWLE PARK, KENT.' THIS magnificent country seat, celebrated as the residence of the Sackvilles, Earls and Dukes of Dorset, is a place of great antiquity. In the time of King John, this manor was held by Baldwyn de Bethune, Earl of Albemarle; from whose family it passed, by marriage, into the possession of the Mareschals, Earls of Pembroke; from this latter family, it passed to the Bigods, Earls of Norfolk; who, in their turn, conveyed it to Otho de Grandison. Sir Thomas Grandison, a descendant of this Otho, sold Knowle, or Knole, to Sir Geoffrey de Say, a Knight Bannaret, who had the honour of a summons to parliament in the first year of Edward III., and who was subsequently constituted admiral of the royal fleets, from the River Thames, westward. The next possessor of Knowle was Ralf Leghe; by whom it was sold to the first Lord Say and Sele, whose successor disposed of it, together with some other lands in the same part of Kent, for four hundred marks, to Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. This prelate greatly improved the park and the mansion, and, on his decease in 1486, bequeathed the whole to the metropolitan see. Thenceforward, Knowle became, for a time, the principal archiepiscopal residence. Archbishop Morton, who died at Knowle in 1560, expended much wealth in the augmentation and improvement of the buildings on the estate; and, as it appears from Rymer's Fœdera, was more than once visited at Knowle, by Henry VII. The Archbishops Dene and Warham, who, after Morton, successively filled the see of Canterbury, resided much at Knowle; where the latter prelate was honoured by a visit from King Henry the Eighth. Archbishop Cranmer, Warham's celebrated successor, found it necessary to deliver up to the crown several of the rich possessions belonging to his see; and among others, the manor of Knowle; which, after having continued for some years to be royal property, was granted first to the Protector Somerset, and afterwards to John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. After the attainder of that aspiring nobleman, Queen Mary granted Knowle, with Sevenoaks, and other contiguous estates, to her kinsman, Cardinal Pole; the Cardinal, however, died on the same day with the Queen, and the estate reverted to the crown. Queen Elizabeth, some years afterwards, conveyed the fee simple of the manor of Knowle to Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst; who, however, did not obtain full possession of the property till the year 1603. This Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, was a man of singular genius. He was the author of the "Mirror for Magistrates;" and of a "Legend of the Duke of Buckingham," a work which has been pronounced on good authority to approach nearer to 'the Fairy Queen' in its richness of allegorical description, "than any previous or succeeding poem." Four years afterwards appeared his Tragedy of Gorboduc. This dramatic work was performed before Queen Elizabeth by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple, and is supposed to have been the first tragedy ever written in English verse. Having by these productions obtained the reputation of being the best poet of his time, Lord Buckhurst assumed the character of a statesman, in which walk of life he also became eminent. But now, alas, 66 The chilling cup of worldly love Quench'd his bright thoughts to wake no more." On the decease of his father, Sir Richard Sackville, in 1566, this distinguished man was created a peer, by the title of Baron Buckhurst. He was subsequently made a Knight of the Garter; and Queen Elizabeth, with whom he was in great favour, raised him, on the death of Burleigh, to the post of Lord High Chancellor. He enjoyed the full confidence of James I., who, in 1604, created him Earl of Dorset. Within four years afterwards he died, while in attendance at the council-board. Lord Buckhurst's grandson, Richard, the third Earl of Dorset, who was married to the celebrated Anne Clifford, having greatly impaired his fortune by his splendid mode of living, was constrained to alienate from his family most of his estates, including that of Knowle; which last, being bought by Henry Smith, an alderman of London, was by him bequeathed, together with some other manors, for charitable purposes. The fee-simple of the estate of Knowle was, however, subsequently re-purchased by Richard, the fifth Earl of Dorset; and in the possession of his descendants it has ever since remained. The magnificent and immense pile of building which graces the princely demesne of Knowle, exhibits specimens of the architecture of different ages; the greater part of the mansion, however, is in the style of the times of the Archbishops Bourchier and Morton; the most ancient portion is probably coeval with the Mareschals and Bigods; the most modern part was erected by Thomas, first Earl of Dorset, in the beginning of the reign of James I. In this portion of the building, all the water-spouts bear the date of 1605. Many repairs, however, have been since made, particularly by Richard, fifth Earl of Dorset, who married the Lady Frances Cranfield, and whose arms, in conjunction with hers, appear on the garden-gates, sundial, &c., at Knowle. The principal buildings of this magnificent residence, form a spacious quadrangle; they are chiefly in the castellated style, and exhibit numerous square towers, and two massive embattled gateways. The mansion, with its appurtenances, occupies above five acres of ground; an extent which, combined with the feudal character of the pile, forcibly recalls to the memory the distant days of romantic chivalry and baronial splendour. Nor is the charm dissolved as the admiring visitor enters the ancient hall, which is still undefaced by modern alterations; and which, we may add, still bears witness to the princely hospitality of its noble owners. Many of the apartments at Knowle are furnished and decorated with the utmost magnificence; but their main attraction consists in the valuable collection of paintings ELIEZER AND REBEKAH. 105 which they contain. The portraits, numerous and well-preserved, include those of many of the principal nobility and statesmen who lived in the reigns of Henry VIII. and the other sovereigns of the House of Tudor. Some of these portraits are by Holbein; while, among the other pictures, there are some of the finest productions of Titian, Correggio, Vandyck, Rembrandt, and our own Sir Joshua Reynolds. The mansion is also rich in the armorial bearings of the Sackville family, richly emblazoned on glass. The window of the billiard-room bears a knight in armour, with this inscription, "Herbrandus de Sackville, præpotens Normanus, intravit Anglicam cum Gulielmo Conquestore, anno 1066." In a corridor on the south-west side of the edifice, there is a fine collection of antique busts, chiefly purchased in Italy by the late Duke of Dorset. The Park is between five and six miles in circumference, and presents a richly-diversified surface, abounding with luxuriant woods, and well stocked with deer of uncommon beauty. The last Duke of Dorset was killed, some years ago, while hunting near Dublin— a melancholy event, which produced so deep an effect upon his father-in-law, Earl Whitworth, that he retired into private life, and died, at Knowle Park, in the year 1825. The title of Earl of Plymouth is likewise extinct. The last Earl, Archer, married Mary Sackville, eldest daughter of the third Duke of Dorset; and thus became the possessor of the magnificent seat, of which a view accompanies this article. THE MEETING OF ELIEZER AND REBEKAH AT THE WELL. THE beautiful family history to which the incident represented in the accompanying plate appertains, owes a portion of its interest to the light which it throws upon Eastern manners in the Patriarchal times. It affords us not merely a glimpse, but a full view of a style of domestic life in the highest degree picturesque; and, concerning which, although it be to a great extent still preserved in the East-that marvellous land, where the modes of thinking and the manners of to-day are essentially the same as those which prevailed five thousand years ago,-we, of the Western world, must ever gratefully acknowledge that we owe our acquaintance with it, mainly to those inspired records which represent it to us in the fulness of its simple yet romantic beauty. Eliezer, who had been born in Abraham's family, being commissioned by his master, then "old and well-stricken in years," to seek out a wife for his son Isaac, is required by him to "swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth," that he will not choose a maiden from among the heathen daughters of the Canaanites, but one connected by blood with "the Father of the faithful." He |