Trin Coll. <1>
Sunday evening April 19
My dear Father
I returned here on Friday and got your letter yesterday. A good many of my friends have got Scholarships. I supposed that I was nowhere and Mr Mathison <2> told me that I was not that that was the case. Gillespie <3> got one of course. Swainson who is a particular friend of mine got one. He was considered to have a good chance, but not by any means certain. He had seen I believe a fair number of the pieces set for translation and did a very good Miscellaneous paper, or Cram paper as it is called. Harrow had 4 men all in our year Gillespie Swainson Stow and Martin. but [sic] one Harrow man whom we thought certain did not get it. I think they took no account of a mans being double, and if they had he would very likely have got it. Another man who thought himself certain, and who was about the only man who thought himself certain, was not elected. And there seems to be little doubt that the reason was that he had displeased the Seniors for that is he said that on going over his papers carefully he could scarcely find anything that he could have done better. They are not obliged to give the a scholarship to the best scholar, unless they choose, if they dissapprove [sic] of him. One thing which is supposed to have told against him very much is that when he deliberately went and got a 7th class in the October examination of his 2nd year and there could be of course no doubt that he did it as a kind of bravado. I won
I wonder if the Otago gazette is to be believed, about the Dinornis. <4> There has been a discovery here (and I dont know whether I mentioned it) at some coprolite diggings of 2 stone coffins containing bodies of very ancient date, I have not yet been able to see them.
On the day after I wrote to my Mother <5> being Wednesday I went to Newark where I posted my letter and saw the church and castle. I slept there. The church is a very good one.
Newark Church was restored some few years back under the superintendence of Gilbert Scott. <6> It has a very fine tower. The lower part being Early English, part of the arcading of which has been cut away for the insertion of a perpendicular window. The upper part & spire is a very Decorated and a very good design. The belfry windows being in pairs on each side with a gabled canopy over both lights and very elegant with niches round them – & the statues remaining in them – (some perhaps restored) it is not so high nor so rich a spire as Grantham, but I am inclined to think that it is a more perfect design. Then there is a very good Decorated south aisle with some fine windows, which has been not been improved by some perpendicular additions. The church is very large large and the choir has stalls remaining, backed by a very fine perpendicular screen which also crosses the choir at its entrance. beyond the choir at the east end is a space which they say was the Lady chapel. In the transept is a very large and I think late brass now placed against the wall.
Though Newark castle <7> is an interesting looking ruin on the outside hanging over the river. It is a mere shell, that wall alone rem remaining and there is very little to see inside. There is however a norman crypt with an outlet from it, which emerges on a level with the base of the wall, on the bank of the river. I then the same day took a walk of about 2 miles out of Newark to see a house called Kelham Hall <8> lately built by Gilbert Scott of red brick & stone. I got a good view of it from 2 sides as the road passes near it it is a fine house, though it didnt seem to me a faultless design. I do not suppose it is shown I asked a I knocked at the lodge gate to find out but no one came so I had to give it up. I should like to have seen t it near. it stands close to the river. (is it the Trent?) The Lodge go Lodge Gate is a very fine one a stone arch with carving on the stonework above it. supported by 2 pillars of polished granite. I then returned to Newark with a good appetite. Next day Thursday I went to Southwell, taking a return ticket to see Southwell Minster <9>, which pleased me very much. The nave is a fine Norman one. & has been scraped (if indeed it was ever whitewashed.) The Norman ornament[ts] are quite fresh even on the outside the stone having stood so well. It has a central & 2 western towers. I went up the central one but it is not high enough To give a very extensive view Newark spire 6 miles off was very prominent in the landscape. the choir screen is a fine one of stone Decorated as are also the choir stalls. in fact they are very good indeed.
The choir and its aisles are Early English with a stone vaulted roof. the effect of the aisles has been a good deal spoiled by putting up galleries – which is the more absurd because there is not space for seats under them, but that is only occupied by dark closets. [There?] a stone Sedelia Decorated and very good. The church has a second little transept which I believe is very una unusual exept in a few cathedrals. There is an octagonal chapterhouse, with a door leading it all Decorated. The door leading into it is covered with “Natural” foliage perhaps the best of any I have ever seen. and perfect except in the lower parts. The carving inside the chapterhouse is also very good. it has a stone vaulted roof. The church is a collegiate & parish church I believed they had a good many canons but the ecclesiastical commissioners have cut them down to one and given it him I believe for life. They had choral service there which I attended and in the afternoon. There being a verger and regular choristers. They didnt sing badly and had an anthem only the boys voices struck me as rather harsh & provincial. the congregation was represented by 2 or 3 ladies & myself. I dont know whether they have service every day. The ruins of the palace of the Archbishops of York who once resided there adjoin the church and by the kindness of the ladies who in live in part of the same which has a roof as there house, I being a stranger was told I might walk round and took at look at the rest of the ruins which surround there garden. They It seemed almost all perpendicular and a little difficult to make out. I got a fine view of all the buildings from some fields nea just out of the town. having lunched at an inn There is a celebrated norman porch to the church. having lunched at inn , I returned to Newark picked up my luggage and went to Gant Grantham where I stopped saw the church which wants restoring, but has been a very fine one. Space & the hour makes me curtail my description for the present. There is a good crypt & the remains of a fine north door. and as you probably know a very fine spire. The Angel Inn, one of the few specimens of an old gothic inn retains its front in perfect preservation and is very good only they have gilded the angel
4. leaving Grantham I proceeded to Peterborough where I slept and next morning Friday I went over the cathedral there is not much new But a roof by Scott in point of execution is excellent in the choir Having spent some time there I meant to have done Ely too, but had had enough of it & went to Cambridge.
I must conclude – it being a quarter to one.
Your affect son
Charles.
[envelope:]
H Fox Talbot Esq
11 Gt Stuart St
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. William Collings Mathison, tutor at Cambridge.
3. Robert William Gillespie, in 1873 took the additional name Stainton.
4. A gigantic extinct bird of New Zealand.
5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
6. Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878), gothic revival architect.
7. Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, was founded in the 1130’s by Bishop Alexander, of Lincoln, but it was largely destroyed in the 1640’s.
8. Nottinghamshire. It was destroyed by fire in 1857.
9. Founded in 956 by Archbishop Oskytel of York. The present building dates from the early 12th century.