. Vanishing England . Section of* Mouldings of Cornice on Panelling-,the Church House, Goudhurst fires ; they could not foresee the advent of the modernrange and the great coal fires, or perhaps they wouldhave been more careful about that beam. Fire is, perhaps, the chief cause of the vanishing of oldhouses, but it is not the only cause. The craze for newfashions at the beginning of the last century doomed todeath many a noble mansion. There seems to have beena positive mania for pulling down houses at that I go over in my mind the existing great houses in thiscounty, I find that by
. Vanishing England . Section of* Mouldings of Cornice on Panelling-,the Church House, Goudhurst fires ; they could not foresee the advent of the modernrange and the great coal fires, or perhaps they wouldhave been more careful about that beam. Fire is, perhaps, the chief cause of the vanishing of oldhouses, but it is not the only cause. The craze for newfashions at the beginning of the last century doomed todeath many a noble mansion. There seems to have beena positive mania for pulling down houses at that I go over in my mind the existing great houses in thiscounty, I find that by far the greater number of the oldhouses were wantonly destroyed about the years 1800-20,and new ones in the Italian or some other incongruousstyle erected in their place. Sometimes, as at LittleWittenham, you find the lone lorn terraces of thegardens of the house, but all else has disappeared. AsMr. Allan Fea says : When an old landmark disappears,. * * i 170 VANISHING ENGLAND who does not feel a pang of regret at parting with some-thing which linked us with the past? Seldom an oldhouse is threatened with demolition but there is someprotest, more perhaps from the old associations than fromany particular architectural merit the building may have many pangs of regret when we see such wantondestruction. The old house at Weston, where theThrockmortons resided when the poet Cowper lived atthe lodge, and when leaving wrote on a window-shutter— Farewell, dear scenes, for ever closed to me ;Oh ! for what sorrows must I now exchange ye ! may be instanced as an example of a demolished is now left of it but the entrance-gates and a partof the stables. It was pulled down in 1827. It isdescribed as a fine mansion, possessing secret chamberswhich were occupied by Roman Catholic priests when itwas penal to say Mass. One of these chambers was foundto contain, when the house was pulled down, a rough bed,candlestick, rema
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