ment, as ancient china, &c., which are worthy of a close inspection. The ceiling, too, of this apartment (as of many of those we have traversed) is highly ornamented, and worked with pendants and enriched cornices.

A door at the foot of the great staircase leads us to the terrace, which is formed along the south front of the house, between the projecting ends, beneath which it terminates under an arcade of two arches; a balustrade separates it from the park, with which it communicates by a flight of steps. As we walk along the velvety turf of the terrace, we have a good opportunity of examining the details of this front, of which we before took a general and distant view. Passing under the ornamental arches at the eastern end, a door admits us to the second terrace; this is of considerable dimensions and of a square form. It was in olden time appropriated to the game of "croquet," and the ring through which the bell was driven still remains erect in the centre of this terrace.

THE " MINSTREL COURT OF THE DUTTONS."

PASSING the viaduct near the Acton station, in Cheshire, the traveller on the North-Western Railway may have perceived at the other side of the river Weever, a farm-house, half hidden in the trees that clothe the summit of the opposite hill. This is the remains of the ancient mansion of the family of Dutton of Dutton. It will amply repay any lover of the domestic architecture of the sixteenth century, to leave the railway at the above station, and pay a visit to the old house. A narrow paved road, presenting here and there through its over-hanging trees, beautiful glimpses of the surrounding country, conducts from Acton Station to Acton Bridge. Here, parting from the road, a path winds through the rich "meadows, browsed by deep-uddered kine," that flank the Weever on either side, and leads to the foot of the woody eminence seen from the viaduct, whereon stands the ruins of Dutton Hall. Turning abruptly to the right, the path ascends the hill, and a few hundred paces bring the traveller to the door.

Here he is presented with an unusually rich fragment of the domestic architecture of the sixteenth century, causing a vain regret that so little has been preserved of this venerable pile.

It occupies, as I have already said, the ridge of a steep declivity, commanding a finely wooded country, with a surface of beautiful undulation, and some splendid reaches of the river. One side of the site is protected by the slope of the hill, the remaining portion is surrounded by a moat, broad and deep.

But one side of the ancient quadrangle is standing, composed of timber and plaster. The ancient doorway still remains. It consists of a broad arch, over which several fanciful borders are introduced with arabesques and various devices, including S. P. D. K., and the letters P. V., tied together with a true lover s knot, and this inscription in black letters.

Syr Peyrs Dutton, Knt., Lorde of Dutton, and my lade dame
Julian, hys wiff, made this hall and buyldyng, in the yere of oure
Lorde God, MCCCCCXLII, who thanketh God of all.

The door within the porch is studded with nails and divided into six panels, covered with tracery above, over it are several shields, and on each side the arms of Dutton and Hatton quarterly, with helmets and crests, and two griphons, parted per fesse or and azure, as supporters. Other figures there are holding a garter and a rose. Under one shield are the

VOL. VI., NO. XXVIII.

K

letters L. H. S. encircled with a wreath; and under the other, the five wounds of Christ.

This doorway opened into a passage leading through the buildings, the oaken roof of which still remains. On the right side were the buttery and other offices as in college halls; and on the left, the great hall, forty feet by twenty. This apartment was separated from the passage by a screen with ornamented pilasters; but this has been built up. Other pilasters run up the sides, ending in octagonal capitals, supporting a coved ceiling, on the edge of which is a black letter inscription. As the hall has been divided into several stories for the convenience of farming purposes, partial views only can be obtained of the proportions and parts of the hall; but the inscription can be easily traced by any one who ascends a trap door leading into the upper story, which is close to the coved roof. It runs to the effect, that the hall was built by the said Sir Piers Dutton, then of Hatton, Kt., heir male of the late Lawrence Dutton, of Dutton, to commemorate the successful issue of his long suit against the heir, Genvale of the Duttons; which said suit was closed by an award in Sir Piers' favour, by King Henry the Eighth, under his broad seal.

From this township the ancient family of Duttons obtained their surname. It is spelt in Domesday, Duntune, signifying a town upon a hill; and was in the possession of a knight, named Odard, in 1086. The above Sir Piers Dutton was the fifteenth in lineal descent from Odard. The hall built by him was adjoined to a chapel, which had been erected by Sir Thomas Dutton, A.D. 1270, and which had heretofore stood separate from the mansion. This chapel was, unhappily, pulled down not long ago, by Mr. Aston, to whom the estate then belonged.

The immediate line of the Duttons, of Dutton, terminated in 1665, by the death of the Lady Kilmorey, who was, with her daughter Katherine, who died the day before her, buried at Great Budworth, on Friday, the 16th March, in that year. Her father, Thomas Dutton, of Dutton, was a man of dissipated and careless habits. He sold a great part of the vast possessions of the family; and, through the most wanton negligence, suffered a collection of family and local records, unequalled in the whole county, to be scattered and lost.

Sir Peter Leicester tells us that when he was here in 1665, there was preserved as an heir-loom, handed down from the first proprietor, a sword, reputed to have belonged to the said Odard, and always called "Odard's Sword." This, with many other invaluable relics, has perished in the lapse of time.

The Hall and Manor of Dutton passed through various hands after Kilmorey's death, by means of marriages, purchases, &c., and now belongs to Sir Richard Aston, of Aston. It came to him from Mr. Broke, of Mere, who purchased it from Mr. Lant, of Putney, who himself had been a purchaser.

This gentleman was the last who held the "Minstrel Court," in exercise of a privilege and jurisdiction attached to the Dutton estate; which, from its curious incidents and long assertion, is worthy of notice. It consisted in a right to license all the minstrels and players of Cheshire, and none were to use minstrelsy within Cheshire or the city of Chester, but by order and licence of the proprietor of the Dutton estate.*

*This right seems originally to have been vested only in the heirs of Dutton, but at length it camo to be alienated with the estate.

The privilege was originally granted to Roger Lacy, for his rescue of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, when closely besieged by the Welsh, in his Castle of Rhuddlan.

Hugh, the first Earl of Chester, in his charter of foundation of St. Werburgh's Abbey in that city, had granted to them, who should come to Chester fair, that they should not be then apprehended for theft or any other misdemeanour, except the crime were commited during the fair. The consequence of which privilege was, that multitudes of disorderly people resorted thither. Now it came to pass that Ranulph, last Earl of Chester, marching into Wales with a slender attendance, was constrained to retire to his Castle of Rhuddlan, where he was strictly besieged by the Welsh. Finding himself very hard pressed, he contrived to give notice of his danger to Roger Lacy, Constable of Chester, who taking advantage of the number of the minstrels and players attending the fair, collected a crowd and marched to Rhuddlan.

“The minstrels,” says an old account, " by their music and their songs, so allured and inspirited the multitudes of loose and lawless persons then brought together, that they resolutely marched against the Welsh. Hugh de Dutton, a gallant youth, who was steward to Lacy, put himself at their head. The Welsh, alarmed at the approach of this rabble, supposing them to be a regular body of armed and disciplined soldiers, instantly raised the siege and retired with precipitation."

For this good service Ranulph granted to the Laeys, by charter, a peculiar patronage over men of their sort, who devolved the same again upon Dutton and his heirs.* This Hugh de Dutton was the third in descent from the above mentioned Odard, and under him and his descendants, the minstrels who had been his assistants upon this occasion enjoyed for many ages peculiar honour and privileges, and even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, when this profession had fallen into such discredit, that it was considered in law as a nuisance, the minstrels, under the protection of the family of Dutton, are expressly excepted out of all acts of Parliament made for their suppression, and have continued to be excepted ever since. See the 14th Eliz., c. 5; 39 Eliz., c. 4; 43 Eliz., c. 9; 1 Jac., c. 25 ; & 17 Geo. I, c. 5.

It appears by a quo warranto, brought against Lawrence Dutton, Esq., in 1498, which is found in the records at Chester, that it was the custom for all minstrels in Chester to meet the Lord of Dutton on the day of St. John the Baptist, on which occasion they were to present him with four flagons of wine and a lance, and he was entitled to receive from every minstrel the sum of four pence halfpenny and “ de qualibet meretrice," in the city of Chester, "officium suum exercente," the sum of fourpence. After this time we hear of no controul exercised by the Duttons over any persons but minstrels.

The ceremonies attending the exercise of this jurisdiction were as follow :-A banner bearing the arms of Dutton was hung from the window of the inn where the court was held, and notice given by a drummer proclaiming in the streets and summoning all persons concerned to appear at the court between certain hours. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon the procession moved from the inn in this manner, viz.—First a band of music, then two trumpeters, then licensed musicians, with white

*See Sir P. Leycester's " Antiquity of Cheshire," p. 141, where the deed of grant from Lacy to Hugh de Dutton is given at length.