CHAPTER X.

bacon's home. temple and VERULAIM HOUSE, GORHAMBURY.

When Verulani stood
St Albans was a wood ;
But now Verulam's down,
St Albans is become a town.

The chief parts that are now standing of the remains of Temple
House, Gorhambury, are the ruins of the hall, which constituted
the inner side of the court, and a lofty octagonal tower. The
inside, which is now quite open, appears from the Aubrey manu-
scripts to have been highly ornamented in the splendid style of
the age. " In the hall," writes Aubrey, " is a large storie, very
well painted, of the feast of the Gods, where Mars is caught in a
net by Vulcan. On the wall over the chimney is painted an oak,
with acorns falling from it, with the words Nisi quid potius ; and
on the wall over the table is painted Ceres teaching the somng of
corn, the words Moniti Meliora." *

This was Lord Bacon's motto, and finds particular reflection in
connection with his concluding words to the " De Augmentis " of
1623 — that he had "sown unto fosterity." May we not venture
to suppose that this picture had some association Avith the intro-
duction of Ceres in the play of " The Tempest " ?

* Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram
Instituit, cum jam glandes atque arbuta sacrte
Deficerent silva>, et victum Dodona negaret,

(Virgil, " Georgics, " i. 147.)

There is an allusioii to these lines in the third Sophism of Bacon's " Colours
of Good and Evil. " " Propter comparationem ; si bonum fueiit generi humaiio
privari esu glandiuni, non sequitur (|uod mains illc erat ; sed Dodona bona,
Ceres melior." (Spedding, i. 676.)

TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 187

Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy rich leas

Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Peas.

(Act iii. sc. 3.)

It was Ceres, as represented in the painting, who first taught
men agriculture and a civil life. And it was round her worship
that the Greek Drama took its origin. " The religion which pro-
duced the Drama, is essentially connected with the worship of the
elements, and that the Greek Drama in particular manifests itself
in the cognate worship of Apollo, Demeter {Ceres), and Dionysus "
(Donaldson's "Greek Theatre," p. 10). "It Avas as a Phallic
God, and as the giver of wine, that Dionysus retained his place
in the worship of ancient Greece. And in this capacity his
worship connects itself indissolubly with the mysteries of Demeter
and her daughter, the goddesses of the earth and under-world.
Generally the productiveness of the earth is regarded as the
result of a mai-riage between the God of the sky — whether he
appears as the genial sun or as the refreshing rain — and the
goddess Avho represents the teeming earth and weds her daughter
to Plutus, the owner of the treasure hidden below the surface of
the ground, either actually as metallic riches, or potentially as
the germs of vegetable growth " {Ihid. 1 9).

So it seems Bacon, as a boy, must have early been made
acquainted with this subject, seeing in his "Wisdom of the
Ancients," he so thoroughly apprehends the meaning of Pro-
serpine who was the daughter of Ceres. Bacon's father, Sir
Nicholas Bacon, is described by Naunton in his "Fragmenta
Regalia" as "an arch-piece of wit and Avisdom." Again, "Those
that lived in his age, and from Avhence I have taken this little
model of him, give him a lively character, and they decipher him
to be another Solon, and the Simon of those times, such an one
as CEdipus was in dissolving riddles." In the garden close to
the house was a statue of Orpheus, another supposed founder
of the mysteries, and in a niche in a l^roken wall, a full length
statue of Henry VIII. in gilt armour, but greatly defaced and
mutilated. So that Bacon had enough around him to stimulate

1 88 TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY.

his poetical, classical, and historical genius into thought. This
wall, in -which the fragment of Henr}' YIII. stands, formed part
of a noble piazza or porticus, Avhich, according to Aubrey, was
built by the Lord Chancellor Bacon, and is described by Pennant
as having a range of pillars of the Tuscan order in front.
" Opposite to every arch of this portico," Avrites A^ibrey, " and
as big as the arch, are drawn liy an excellent hand (but the
mischief of it is, in water-colom-s) curious pictures, all emblemati-
cal, with mottoes under each : for example, one, I remember, is a
ship tossed in a storm, the motto. Alter eritiim Typhys. (This is
an allusion to the Pilot of the Argonautic expedition). Over
this portico is a stately gallery, whose glass Avindows are all
painted ; and every pane Avith several figures of beast, bird,
or fioAver : perhaps his Lordship might use them as topics of
local use. The AvindoAvs look into the garden : the side oppo-
.site them has no AvindoAvs, but is hung all Avith pictures at
length, as of King James, his Lordship, and several illustrious
persons of his time. At the end you enter is no AA-indow,
but there is a very large picture thus : in the middle, on
a rock in the sea, stands King James in armour, Avith his
regal ornaments ; on his right hand stands (but Avhether or
no on a rock, I have forgot) Henry IV. of France, in armour ;
and on his left hand, the King of Spain in like armour. These
figures are, at least, as big as life ; they are done only Avith
umbre and shell gold ; all the heightening and illuminated part
being burnished gold, and the shadow umljre. The roof of this
galler}^ is semicylindriquc, and painted Ity the same hand, and
same manner, Avith heads and busts of Greek and Roman emjDerors
and heroes." In an orchard connected Avith the old mansion Avas
a small banquetting or summer-house, the Avails of Avhich Avere
curiously painted alfresco, AAdth representations of the liberal arts,
having approi)riatc mottoes under them, and above them, the
heads of the most illustrious of those Avho had excelled in each
art, Avhether ancient or modern. The mottoes are preserved
in Weever (p. 584), and also in the " Biographica Britannica,"

TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 189

vol. i. p. 446, where they are given with translations. This
mansion was reduced to its present ruinous state when the house
of the Lords Grimston was built in the years 1778-1785.

Bacon also erected a house within the walls of ancient
Verulam, which, according to Aubrey, " he had a great mind to
have made a city again ; and he had designed it to be built with
great uniformity." Verulam House, continues the writer, " was
the most ingeniously contrived little pile that I ever saw. No
ciuestion but his Lordship was the chief est architect ; but he had
for his assistant a favourite of his, a St Albans man, Mr Dobson
(father of Dobson, the celebrated portrait painter), who was his
Lordship's right hand.

" This house did cost nine or ten thousand (pounds) the build-
ing, and was sold about 1665 or 6, by Sir Harbottle Grimston,
Bart, (now Master of the Eolls), to two carpenters, for four
hundred pounds, of Avhich they made eight hundred pounds ;
there were good chimney-pieces ; the rooms very lofty, and very
well wainscotted ; there were two bathing rooms, or stufFes,
whither his Lordship retired afternoons as he saw cause : all the
tunnels of the chimneys were carried into the middle of the
house, and round about them were seats. From the leads w.*s a
lovely prospect to the ponds, which were opposite to the east side
of the house, and were on the other side of a stately walk of trees
that leads to Gorhambury House, and also over that long walk of
trees, whose tops afford a most pleasant variegated verdure,
resembling the works in Irish stiches. In the middle of the
house was a delicate stair'^ase of wood, which was curiously
carved ; and on the post of every interstice was some pretty
figure, as of a grave divine with his book and spectacles, a mendi-
cant friar, &c., not one thing twice : on the doors of the upper
storey on the outside, which were painted dark umbre, were
figures of the Gods of the Gentiles ; viz., on the South door,
second storey, was Apollo ; on another Jupiter, with his thunder-
holt, bigger than the life, and done by an excellent hand; the lightnings
were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shone on them, made a

I90 TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY.

wost glorious shoii'. This was his Lordship's summer house ; for
he said one should have scats for summer and winter, as well as
clothes. The kitchen, larder, cellars, &c., are under ground."

In these trifles we see reflected Bacon's classical tastes and
predilections. This pictorial Jupiter seems to find reflection in
the play of " Cymbeline," where in the last act Jupiter is introduced
throning a tkunderhoU.

Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle :
he throvjs a thunder-holt. (Act. v.)

When this play Avas written Verulam House had l)een built,

and these decorations existed. "The Tempest" — another of the

final plays — also presents us Avith Jupiter. We consider these

points shoAV strong parallel evidence that Bacon Avas suirounding

himself Avith paintings of subjects Ave refind in the last plays.

Apollo, the God of poetry and song, Jupiter, the protagonist of

classical mythology, hoAV often do Ave refind all this in the book

of books 1

And the fire-rob'd God
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain
As I seem now.

("Winter's Tale," act iv. sc. 4.)

To the dread rattling tluuider
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
"With his own bolt.

(" Tempest.")

" From hence to Gorhambury is about 2 little miles ; the

Avay ascending hardly so acclive as a desk : three parallel Avalkes

leade to Gorhambmy in a straight line ; in the middlemost,

three coaches may pass abreast ; in the Aving Avalkes, tAvo : they

consist of severall stately trees of the like groAvth and height,

elme, chesnut, beach, horn-beam, Spanish ash, Cervice-tree, itc.

whose tops, as aforesaid, doe afford from the Avalke on the hoAvse,

the finest shcAv that I have seen. The figures of the ponds were

thus : they Avere pitched at the bottomes Avith pebbles of severall

colours, which were workt into severall figures, as of fishes, &c.

Avhich in his Lordship's time Avere })lainly to l^e seen through the

TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 191

clere water, (though) now overgrown with flagges and rushes. If
a poor bodie had brought his lordship halfe a dozen pebbles of
curious colour, he would give them a shilling, so curious M^as he
in perfecting his fish ponds, which I guess doe containe four acres.
In the middle of the middlemost pond in the island is a curious
banquetting house of Roman architecture, paved with black and
white marble, covered with Cornish slate, and neatly wainscotted "
("History of Verulam and St Albans." F. L. Williams, p. 140^
1822).