The village of Corsham, approached either from the north or south, is
equally picturesque. By the former there is a long row
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of sturdy Tudor cottages with mullioned windows and deep-set
doorways; by the latter, the grey gables of the ancient Hungerford
Hospital, and beyond the huge piers of the entrance to Corsham
Court. An inscription over the almshouse porch and beneath the
elaborate sculptured arms of the Hungerfords, says that it was
founded by Lady Margaret Hungerford, daughter of William Halliday,
alderman of London, and Susan, daughter of Sir Henry Row, Knight,
Lord Mayor of London. The chapel is on the right-hand side, and
contains the original Jacobean pulpit, seats, and gallery. The pulpit is
a two-decker, and the seat beneath a comfortable armchair of large
proportions with an ingenious folding footstool. The screen is a fine
piece of Jacobean carving, with pilasters and semicircular arches of
graceful design, with the Hungerford arms upon two shields. There is
a good oak staircase and a quaint exterior corridor leading to the
several dwellings, with trim little square gardens allotted to each.
Corsham Court has a stately and dignified appearance. The second
entrance gate has colossal piers, which quite dwarf the others
previously mentioned. Beyond are the stables, a picturesque row of
Elizabethan gables and pinnacles. The south front of the house
preserves its original character in the form of the letter E with the arms and the crest of the builder, William Halliday, on
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pinnacles over the gables, and seven bay-windows. The interior of
the mansion has been much modernised, but the picture collection
contains some of the choicest old masters. Some of Lord Methuen's
ancestors by Reynolds and Gainsborough are wonderfully vigorous.
Here is Vandyck's Charles I. on horseback, with which one is so
familiar. How many replicas must there be of this famous picture!
Charles II. hangs opposite his favourite son in one of the corridors—a
fine portrait of the handsome Monmouth. One of the most curious
pictures is a group by Sir Peter Lely, representing himself in
mediæval costume playing the violoncello to his own family in light
and airy dress. One would have thought that he would have clad his
wife and daughters more fully than some of his famous beauties: on
the contrary. The church, whose tower is detached, has been
restored from time to time, and looks by no means lacking in funds.
The carved parclose of stone and two altar-tombs to the Hanhams
are the chief points of interest. There is a simple recumbent effigy of
one of the Methuens, a little girl, which in its natural sleeping pose is
strangely pathetic, even to those who know nothing of the story of her
early death.