workmanship in an old house at Shrewsbury was nearly exploited by an enterprising American for the sum of L250; and some years ago an application was received by the Home Secretary for permission to unearth the body of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, from its grave in the burial-ground of Jordans, near Chalfont St. Giles, and transport it to Philadelphia.  This action was successfully opposed by the trustees of the burial-ground, but it was considered expedient to watch the ground for some time to guard against the possibility of any illicit attempts at removal.

[Illustration:  Detail of Seventeenth-century Table in Milton’s Cottage, Chalfont St. Giles]

It was reported that an American purchaser had been more successful at Ipswich, where in 1907 a Tudor house and corner-post, it was said, had been secured by a London firm for shipment to America.  We are glad to hear that this report was incorrect, that the purchaser was an English lord, who re-erected the house in his park.

Wanton destruction is another cause of the disappearance of old mansions.  Fashions change even in house-building.  Many people prefer new lamps to old ones, though the old ones alone can summon genii and recall the glories of the past, the associations of centuries of family life, and the stories of ancestral prowess.  Sometimes fashion decrees the downfall of old houses.  Such a fashion raged at the beginning of the last century, when every one wanted a brand-new house built after the Palladian style; and the old weather-beaten pile that had sheltered the family for generations, and was of good old English design with nothing foreign or strange about it, was compelled to give place to a new-fangled dwelling-place which was neither beautiful nor comfortable.  Indeed, a great wit once advised the builder of one of these mansions to hire a room on the other side of the road and spend his days looking at his Palladian house, but to be sure not to live there.

Many old houses have disappeared on account of the loyalty of their owners, who were unfortunate enough to reside within the regions harassed by the Civil War.  This was especially the case in the county of Oxford.  Still you may see avenues of venerable trees that lead to no house.  The old mansion or manor-house has vanished.  Many of them were put in a posture of defence.  Earthworks and moats, if they did not exist before, were hastily constructed, and some of these houses were bravely defended by a competent and brave garrison, and were thorns in the sides of the Parliamentary army.  Upon the triumph of the latter, revenge suffered not these nests of Malignants to live.  Others were so battered and ruinous that they were only fit residences for owls and bats.  Some loyal owners destroyed the remains of their homes lest they should afford shelter to the Parliamentary forces.  David Walter set fire to his house at Godstow lest it should afford accommodation to the “Rebels.”  For