[Illustration: WILTON HOUSE FROM THE RIVER.]
We were quite astonished when we saw the magnificent church, on a
terrace facing our road and approached by a very wide flight of steps.
It was quite modern, having been built in 1844 by Lord Herbert of Lea,
and had three porches, the central one being magnificently ornamented,
the pillars resting on lions sculptured in stone. The tower, quite a
hundred feet high, stood away from the church, but was connected with it
by a fine cloister with double columns finely worked. The interior of
the church was really magnificent, and must have cost an immense sum of
money. It had a marble floor and some beautiful stained-glass windows;
the pulpit being of Caen stone, supported by columns of black marble
enriched with mosaic, which had once formed part of a thirteenth-century
shrine at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, some of the stained glass also
belonging to the same period.
The great House of Wilton, the seat of the Herberts, had been built in a
delightful situation on the site of the old monastery, amidst beautiful
gardens and grounds. It was a veritable treasure-house for pictures by
the most famous painters, containing a special gallery filled almost
exclusively with portraits of the family and others painted by Vandyck.
Pages:
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926