TOUR OF THE OUTBUILDINGSAND HOUSE

THE JOINER'S SHOP

The Joiner's Shop and other workshops in this area date from the nineteenth century, although in the eighteenth century the Joiner's and Carpenter's Shops and the sawpit were sited nearer the house, in what was later to become the Outer Stableyard.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the house carpenter, John Jones, and an estate foreman, William Gittins, worked alongside each other in this workshop, with two apprentices. The workshop is still used today as ajoiner's shop.
Each carpenter owned his own set of tools, which were carefully stored in a box and neuer left lying around when not in use. The two-man sawpit outside provided handsawn timber until the latter part of the nineteenth century, when it was replaced by the steam-driven sawmill. Erddig carpenters were involved in a wide variety of work; more intricate work, such as repairs to

furniture, was generally the responsibility of the joiner. Several were recorded in paintings or photographs and celebrated in verse. John Walters's portrait of Edward Prince of 1792 includes a scroll inscribed with witty verse composed by Philip Yorke I and Shows a carpenter who had served the family since his teens. A portrait of Prince's successor, Thomas Rogers, commissioned by Simon Yorke II in 1830, also incorporates verse composed by his employer. Both portraits are on show in the Servants' Hall.

THE TIMBER YARD

The workshops and stores in this area were rebuilt in the early nineteenth century for the use of the estate foreman and his staff of 3o. The staff were responsible for repairs to the farmhouses and cottages, roads and bridges, fences and footpaths on the 1,80o or so acres of the estate, including parkland. The yard continues to function in the same way and is now used by National Trust estate staff.

THE SAWPIT

Timber from the estate was first seasoned by being stored for a time in the lean-tos around the yard. Until the end of the nineteenth century, when a steam-powered sawmill was introduced, the timber was then reduced to manageable widths in the two-man sawpit, before being stored again for further seasoning. The blade of the 'top and bottom saw' would be regularly lubricated from a grease pot kept in a recess in the wall. Saws hang on the wall.

THE BLACKSMITH'S SHOP

There was probably not a blacksmith's shop here until the first quarter of the nineteenth century, as one does not appear on a plan of the estate yard of about 1800.In the eighteenth century most decorative ironwork supplied to Erddig was made by Robert Davies of Croesfoel, near Wrexham. This included a magnificent pair of wrought-iron gates and screens which were set up on the west front of the house in the 1720s, but swept away in the remodelling of the 1770s.
By 1790, however, the accounts record that William Williams worked regularly for the estate, although he appears not to have been an employee. Like the carpenters, he is celebrated in a portrait of 1793 by John Walters, on show in the Servants' Hall. Williams was responsible for the iron railings on the west front entrance, but successive blacksmiths were involved in a variety of both utilitarian and decorative ironwork. These ranged from everyday ironmongery for the estate, such as latches and hinges, the repairing of farm tools and shoeing of horses, as well as making the lead cast shells for the garden fountains. The set of early eighteenthcentury garden gates bought from nearby Stansty Park by Philip Yorke II in 1908 was repaired by his smith Joseph Wright and set up by the National Trust in the 1970s as a clairvoyg'e at the far end of the canal.

THE WAGON SHED

The timber wagon was, used regularly to transport trees extracted from the estate woodlands. The vehicle could serve as a two-wheeled timber carriage for use on rough ground and dense woodland, or it could be extended to form a fourwheeled vehicle capable of carrying a full-length tree trunk. The wheelwrighting of the front bob dates it to the mid-nineteenth century, whilst the rear bob is of about 1900.

THE LIME YARD AND SAWMILL

This is approached through the Dog Yard where several lapping pools are incorporated into the stone Butter. A plan of doo names the rooms off it as `Flesh Yard', 'Kenel' and `Dog Kitchen'.
The Lime Yard's curved retaining wall allowed a horse and loaded cart to turn without difficulty. The large cast-iron mortar mill was acquired in the early 19oos and used by the estate foreman and his staff. In it lime was mixed with sand and ash to provide mortars which were used on the estate buildings and for Jobs such as the addition of Dutch gables to the garden pavilions in 1912.
The block mould was used during the 1900s for casting concrete blocks for new buildings, an example of the estate's self-sufficiency.
The sawmill was converted from a former hogsty and stable, and the machinery was the responsibility of Thomas Roberts, sawyer and engineer for 49 years.
The steam boiler (the present one was bought second-hand in 1935) powered both the sawmill and the mortar mill, and also ground corn. lt was the unenviable job of the youngest of the estate staff to descale the inside of the boiler: this once resulted in William Gittins becoming wedged upside-down in the manhole. The boiler had a new lease of life in the Tate 1940s and '5os, when Simon Yorke IV's disagreements with the Coal Board about mining beneath the estate, led him to forbid the burning of anything but wood in the house. The boiler itself, however, continued to be fed by coal.
In the other half of the sawmill building is an exhibition and video presentation describing the National Trust's work in restoring Erddig.

THE OUTER YARD

The central brick-built midden was originally heaped with straw and dung from the stables. The long arched hay barn is now occupied by the tearoom and Shop.

CARTS

There are two dung carts: a tumbrel of about 1910 made by Crosskills of Beverley, and a tipping dung cart of about 1880-1900.

THE STABLEYARD

The Outer Yard, the Stableyard and the Laundry beyond form part of a new service wing built on the south side of the house by Philip Yorke I between 1772 and 1774. This replaced the two service wings of the 172os which flanked the forecourt of the west front. The architect James Wyatt (1746-1813) was probably responsible for establishing the general plan, with William Turner of Whitchurch and others specifying the detail and executing the scheme. The original approach for horses and carriages would have been via the rusticated archway, with its keystone dated 1774, leading off the drive to the west front entrance. Inside, the original stalls and mangers are set behind Tuscan columns.
The Yorke's attitude to their liveried staff was informal: Philip Yorke I was concerned only with the honesty and reliability of his grooms and coachmen. He provided them with serviceable, rather than extravagant, livery and rejected the more ostentatious display of the higher aristocracy. Philip Yorke I himself was considered by his neighbour, Charles Apperley, to be a figure of fun on horseback — dressed as he was in a blue military cloak, silver spurs and cocked hat.

VEHICLES

IN CARRIAGE HOUSE:
The Skeleton Boot Victoria of about 186o was intended for use during fine weather and constructed so as to be pulled by 2 single horse or pair. lt is unusual therefore to find a folding, glazed screen in front of the hood frame, which allowed protection from the weather. The panels of the body are embellished with decoration imitating split cane.

Wagonette Omnibus. Originally an elegant Stanhope Phaeton which was converted into a miniature private omnibus in the early twentieth century.

The undercarriage of an early nineteenth-century Travelling Chariot, once used by the family for long-distance travel. The body of the coach does not survive.

IN SMALLER CARRIAGE HOUSE:

A 1907 Rover, bought in the 1920s from the chimney sweep, who had acquired it from the Rector of Marchwiel. lt was Erddig's first car and was licensed until 1924.

The Austins are 1924 and 1927 models.

The bicycles include Philip Yorke Il's nineteenthcentury 'Bone Shaker' by J. Hill of Piccadilly and several earlier penny-farthings, most of which were acquired by Philip Yorke III; the first in his collection was bought for a shilling from a scrapyard in Aberystwyth.

THE DAIRY

This room serves as the entrance to the working areas of the house. lt contains a photographic exhibition of the Yorke's servants and provides a general introduction to the history of the house.

THE LAUNDRY YARD

Meller's original laundry was swept away when Philip Yorke I demolished the range to the west of the house and replaced it by much more spacious accommodation. Grouped around the little enclosed yard are the Bakehouse, Laundry and Scullery. In the nineteenth century this area was entirely the domain of the female staff.

THE BAKEHOUSE

Bread is still baked here on a regular basis using the scuffle ovens, now converted to electricity. These were originally heated for several hours with wooden faggots, the ashes were then raked or `scuffled-out' on to the floor, and the dough slid in on long wooden peels.

IMPLEMENTS
They include a wooden dough chest and an eighteenth-century proving cupboard, as well as a selection of baker's peels and a baker's docker (a roller with metal spikes used for releasing unwanted air from the dough). Also on show are two early twentieth-century dough mixers.

THE WET AND DRY LAUNDRIES

The Laundry occupies two rooms: one used for washing, the other for drying and ironing. The former was supplied with hot water from two large coppers; the cold water came from a pump. Clothes and linen were washed, scrubbed and rinsed in the ceramic sinks, made in nearby Ruabon, while a vent in the high ceiling allowed the clouds of steam to escape. Here the Laundry of both family and servants would have been undertaken on a weekly basis, the finest clothes being laundered by the best laundress.One Erddig laundress, Alice Jones, was celebrated in verse by Philip Yorke II in 1912:

More than eight years her care has been To keep our linen white and clean. Bearing in patience, we might say,
The Burden and the heat of day. And though, by duty at her post, She is less often seen than most, Her tuneful song in accents clear Is heard within our Chapel here.

WASHING IMPLEMENTS

These include a zinc dolly tub and wooden dolly, scrubbing boards, copper possers and an early manual washing-machine.

MANGLES
A hand-geared two-roller mangle and folding tabletop mangle — 'a topper' — were used to wring out wet clothes.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a mangle in the Laundry. The box mangle now occupying the Dry Laundry was made by Baker of London and has an ingenious gearing device which allows the handle to be turned continuously in one direction while the box of stones trundles backwards and forwards.

DRYING AND IRONING
The cast-iron drying racks, running in and out on wheels, were installed in the mid-nineteenth century and were warmed from below by a small stove. Ironing was done on the benches under the windows using a variety of flat irons and special irons — goffering' irons or `fluting' tongs being essential forffl ru es and frills, `glossing' irons to give sheens to collars, and `tally' irons for made-up bows.

THE SCULLERY

Adjacent to the New Kitchen, this was used for the preparation of vegetables, fish and meat as well as the washing of dishes. Opposite the Scullery was the Meat Pantry with frames from which to hang hams and flitches of bacon.

THE NEW KITCHEN
Architecturally one of the grandest rooms at Erddig, the New Kitchen was built in the early 1:7705 and was originally completely detached from the rest of the house, due largely to Philip Yorke I's fear of fire. By the nineteenth century, however, a linking block had been built and the windows on the north wall were blocked in to form cupboards.The room is dominated by the large Venetian window on the east side and three great rusticated arches on the south; the centre one houses the range, installed c.1900, whilst another contains an enormous hot plate. Above two of the arches the old adage Waste Not Want Not' is painted as a pertinent reminder to the staff of the need for thrift.
Accounts of the annual wages of Meller's staff show that in 1725 the cook was the highest paid, with a salary of £21 per year, over twice that of the housekeeper, although by the next century their relative status was to be reversed. The last time there was anything like a full complement of staff at Erddig was just before the First World War, when the housekeeper, Mrs Brown, had overall responsibility for the Kitchen with Mrs Gillam, the head gardener's wife, who did much of the cooking, assisted by three kitchen maids. Their task was made more complicated by the fact that many of the Yorkes, beginning with Philip I, were vegetarians.

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

Many of the items on show, collected by the late Harry Best of Vivod, are typical of Chose listed in an inventory of kitchen equipment made in 1834, following the death of Simon Yorke II. They included a set of copper fish kettles, preserving pans, moulds, frying pans and stew pans, various buckets, bread tins, ice moulds, a spice bag, tea kettle and a marble mortar. The display of food represents the preparations for a dinner party held by Philip and Louisa Yorke on 30th October 1906.

FURNITURE

The mahogany longcase Glock with satinwood banding and beech panels was made by H. Lote of Wrexham in about 1830.
The kitchen table, recently discovered in a property on the estate, is almost certainly the table mentioned in old inventories of the Kitchen.

THE SERVANTS' PASSAGE

Situated above the linking block to the main house were the Housekeeper's Bedroom and Sitting Room with a window conveniently over the back door (on the right) from where she could lower a key to let in staff who had been allowed out in the evening.
The Servants' Passage forms part of the south wing added to the house by John Meller in the 1720s, though it was then an open arcade. Above the passage were the 'clay', `night' and `middle' nurseries used by the last Simon and Philip Yorke, the first room being decorated with a Kate Greenaway wallpaper.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The passage is lined with photographs of the Erddig staff, the earliest of which is a copy of a daguerreotype of 1852. Other group photographs were taken in 1887 and 1912, and all have accompanying doggerel verse composed by Philip Yorke II.

THE STILL-ROOM

Originally used to distil cordial waters for dinners, medicinal purposes and scents, the Still-Room was the domain of the housekeeper, where less perishable foodstuffs, such as tea, coffee, sugar and preserves were stored, many in the labelled drawers and cupboards. By the nineteenth century stillrooms were used for preparing light breakfasts and afternoon tea.

CERAMICS

An early nineteenth-century Derby dinner service, given to Philip Yorke II by his Aunt, Mrs Congreve, in 1892.

THE SERVANTS' PASSAGE

Hung outside the Still-Room is the `Erddig Prayer', a reminder of Philip Yorke I's preoccupation with fire precautions.
Beyond and to the right is a short flight of stairs leading to the Servery, from where food was taken into the Dining Room. The furnace below, installed in 1826 by G. & J. Haden of Trowbridge, is one of the earliest known complete central-heating systems.

THE AGENT'S OFFICE

Together with the adjacent Housekeeper's Room, the Agent's Office formed the administrative centre of the house and estate. The Agent was tesponsible for paying wages, keeping accounts and organising the work of the outdoor staff.Both Edisbury and Meller were served by stew-
ards, the latter by Richard Jones, who managed Meller's affairs in Wales while his nephew, Simon Yorke I, assisted him in London. Jones oversaw the progress of alterations to the house and garden and managed relations with Erddig's neighbours.

John Caesar, Philip Yorke I's agent, performed similar duties, managing Erddig staff in his employer's absente. Caesar appraised him of William Emes's improvements to the park and was responsible for day-to-day matters, such as removing snow off the roof of the house. Caesar was succeeded by his son Jacky, who was less conscientious: in 1787 he was dismissed when it was discovered that he had been paying himself higher wages than he was due.

PICTURES, PLANS AND NOTICES

Family portraits, estate plans and notices are hung around the walls, including one issued by Philip Yorke II prohibiting the unauthorised removal of unripe fruit from the gardens.

FURNITURE

The fire-screen was given to Philip Yorke II in 1906 asa birthday present from his second wife, Louisa. The scene is a copy of a typical Victorian genre painting by S.E. Waller — Alone, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896. The frame was made by Brown's of Chester for £5.

ABOVE FIREPLACE:

The giltwood mirror, c.1800, incorporates a panel depicting the figure of Mars. Either side of it are `rustic' corner cupboards with applied bamboostyle decoration.

ESTATE EQUIPMENT

A selection of surveying, measuring and weighing equipment, including a nineteenth-century measuring chain, a brass spirit-level, postal scales and a stick barometer.
Outside in the passage, Ordnance Survey maps of 1899 illustrate the extent of the Erddig estate.

THE HOUSEKEEPER'S ROOM

The Housekeeper's Room is strategically situated between the Still-Room, Kitchen and Scullery to the south and the Servants' Hall to the wert. James Wyatt advised Philip Yorke Ion the arrangement of these rooms when alterations were being made in the 177os. In a letter to Philip Yorke he proposed that a door be opened from the existing housekeeper's room and old larder to give more space and provide a china store.
The housekeeper was in overall charge of all the female indoor staff, including the cook, and she presided over their daily routines of cleaning the house and preparing food. She was specifically responsible for the valuable china and linen and for ordering provisions which could not be provided from the estate. She also planned meals, particularly when guests were being entertained.
The Yorkes considered their housekeepers to be the linchpin of all domestic arrangements. Miss Brown, housekeeper to Philip Yorke II between 1907 and 1914, typically began her day by checking the cleaning of the downstairs rooms and the early morning laying of fires by the housemaids before the family rose. After breakfast and chapel, she met Mrs Yorke to agree the day's menu and to discuss any other household matters. The remainder of her time was spent ensuring the efficient running of the Kitchen, Scullery, Laundry, Bakehouse and the maids' work in the rest of the house. When the family was not in residence, the housekeeper supervised the protection of the valuable furniture and textiles.
In 1951 Simon Yorke IV employed a Bavarian housekeeper, Victoria Aschenbrenner, who was joined in 1953 by two other German girls, Hildegard Toppi' Stenherr and Evelyn Voigt. This explains the labels written in German on the shelves of the linen cupboard.


FIRE GRENADES

The blue Victorian bottles on the other shelves of the linen cupboard are fire grenades, the design of which was patented in 1883 by H. D. Harden of Chicago and which were sold by the Harden Star Hand Grenade Extinguisher Company. The bottles contained a mixture of water, salt and ammonium chloride. When thrown into the centre of a fire, the ammonium chloride was heated to boiling point and produced fumes which were supposed to blanket the fire. In practice, however, they were no more effective than plain water.

CARPET SWEEPER

The Witch Dust Extractor, with bellows covered in Brussels carpet, was manufactured in Birmingham c.19o5.

FURNITURE

The room is furnished with largely eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pieces relegated from the family rooms.

PHOTOGRAPHS
LEFT OF FIREPLACE:
They include two taken on the occasion of Simon Yorke IV's coming-of-age in 1924.

THE SERVANTS' HALL

This room was used continuously as a servants' hall from 172o. An inventory of 1726, however, lists two halls: the 'New' and 'Old', of which this is certainly one, the other having been swept away in the alterations of the 177os. The Yorkes did not appear to mind that the Servants' Hall looked out directly on to the main entrance. In the post-war period it became a kitchen, when the large New Kitchen was abandoned.
Philip Yorke III regularly entertained visitors herein the Tate 196os and '7os with substantial teas of bread and jam.

PICTURES
The portraits of the house and estate servants are perhaps the most famous feature of Erddig. They comprise two sets, one painted by a local Wrexham artist, John Walters of Denbigh, between 1791 and 1793, the other by William Jones, dated 183o. The portrait of the black coachboy stands outside these groups. Philip Yorke I seems to have begun the tradition of painting the family servants in the 1790s, and he added most of the doggerel verses that describe their jobs and characters; these were published by him in his Crude-ditties (1802). The tradition was carried on through the nineteenth century by photographic groups (hung in the passage outside).

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT OF RANGE:
WILLIAM JONES, 1830
Thomas Rogers, Carpenter (1781-1875)
Dated 183o
The estate carpenter, who was 49 in 1830, worked at Erddig for 73 years.

Edward Barnes, Woodman (b.1761/2)
Dated 1830
When commissioning this picture, Simon Yorke II made his own crude sketch of what he wanted.

JOHN WALTERS of Denbigh
Mrs Jane Ebbrell, Housemaid and Spider-brusher (b.17o5/6)
Dated 1793

Seated outside her cottage, with her broom and mop beside her, at the age of 87. She had worked for John Meller, then married Simon Yorke I's coach- man. Their son was in turn coachman to Simon's son Philip Yorke 1.

Jack Henshaw, Gamekeeper (b.1731/2)

Dated 1791
Painted at the age of 59. The house in the background is Dyffryn Aled, the home of Philip Yorke I's second wife, Diana Meyrick.Jack Nicholas, Kitchen Man (b.1719/2o) Dated 1791
Painted at the age of 71.

William Williams, Blacksmith (b.1722/3) Dated (793
Painted at the age of 70.

Thomas Jones, Butcher and Publican (b.1759/6o)
Dated 1796
Painted at the age of 36. This is the only picture in the series not to represent a direct employee an the estate. According to the published version of the verse inscription, he kept `a Butcher's Stall, and the Royal Oak Public-house, at Wrexham'.

Edward Prince, Carpenter (b.1718/19)
Signed and dated 1792
Painted at the age of 73. Erddig appears in the background. His father, Charles Prince, was carpenter at Erddig in the time of John Meller, and a John Prince worked as carpenter to Joshua Edisbury from about 169o.

WILLIAM JONES, 1830
Thomas Pritchard, Gardener (b.1762/3)
Dated 1830
Painted at the age of 67.

BRITISH, late eighteenth-century
Formerly called John Meller's Coachboy'
This was previously thought to be the first of the Erddig servant portraits, to which Philip Yorke I had added his verses later in the eighteenth century. However, it is now clear that the portrait itself is also late eighteenth-century, and it has recently been revealed by infra-red photography to have had an inscription painted out giving the sitter's name —John Hanby — and age — 25, but no date. The picture was probably acquired and the inscription hidden so it could serve as a portrait to commemorate Meller's horn-playing servant.

HATCHMENTS

Hatchments are lozenge-shaped boards usually painted with the coat of arms of the late owner and traditionally hung above the entrance of his house. lt is characteristic of Erddig that two of its butlers, John Davies and George Dickinson, are remembered here in this form. Dickinson was particularly popular with Simon Yorke III's children, helping them to catch, chloroform and mount butterflies to exhibit in the family museum. He died at Erddig whilst under chloroform himself during a minor operation.

SWORDS AND AXES
ON CEILING:
Each of the 68 radiating swords of the Denbighshire Militia is engraved with a number and the image of a fox. The Militia was founded in May 1760, the Yorkes holding officer rank: Philip Yorke I was commissioned as captain in 1778 and many of the staff served in the regiment.
The fire axes are another reminder of the Yorke's fear of fire.

FURNITURE

The room is simply furnished with pieces of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century country furniture. The oak refectory table is surrotffided by seventeenth-century oak stools and eighteenth-century chairs. The highback settle is also eighteenthcentury.
The mahogany longcase clock has an early eighteenthcentury case, while the mechanism itself, signed by Edmund Appley, Charing Cross, is earlier.
The black jacks were used to serve beer from the nearby Brew-House. Servants were provided with a weekly allowance of beer as an alternative to unsafe drinking water.


THE BUTLER'S PANTRY

The Butler's Pantry has occupied this room since the house was built. The door in the corner leads down to the cellar and from this room the butler was able to gain easy access to the front entrance to allow visitors into the house. The butler was the senior member of the male staff and was responsible for the footmen, two of whose liveries are displayed in the far cupboard. However, in the early eighteenth century, Meller's accounts show that his butler, John Jones, was paid only £10 per year, almost half that paid to the cook. By the mideighteenth century Philip Yorke I's butler, Thomas Newcome, was paid £25 and in 1903 Philip Yorke II's butler, Mr Wooton, received a modest salary of £55 per year.
The butler had a number of duties apart from managing the cellar. He was responsible for the family silver and however late a dinner might go on, the butler had to ensure that the silver was washed, polished and put away in the Strong Room before he or the footman could go to bed; the latter usually slept in a small bed in front of the safe door itself. The butler also supervised the washing of the finest china and glass in the lead-lined sink.

CONTENTS

Many of the items are similar to those found in the Butler's Pantry ofJohn Meller's household in 1726:

A knife box, sub-divided into two sections.

A hardwood butler's tray on folding stand.

A Harrods knife cleaner with cast-iron frame.

An oval papier miicW bowl, used for washing glasses.

A wicker basket with paraffin primer stove, teapot, cups and plates, c.1903.

Three 'New Snapshot' mousetraps, patented 1894 and made at Johnstone, Glasgow.A selection of assorted wine glasses, decanters and sodg siphons.


SILVER

ON LEFT:

Two of the pantry cupboards have been adapted to display some of the finest pieces from the collection, including plate inherited from the Hutton branch of the family.

The mid-eighteenth-century soup tureen and cover on lion mask and paw feet was made in 1750 by Paul Crespin (1694-1770), one of the great Rococo silversmiths.

The bell-shaped jugs, engraved with the Hutton arms, are by Edward Vincent, 1736.

The bell-shaped tankard with double-scroll handle and gadrooned rim and foot is engraved with borders of vines, barley ears and bacchanalian masks as well as the Hutton arms. It was made by Jacob Marsh in 1768.

The silver-mounted gourd goblet was made c.1725, the Hutton, Yorke and Cust arms added c.1770.

The four saute boats by Walter Brind are engraved with the Yorke and Cust arms.

The spherical soap dish dates from about 1740. The sugar caster is by Simon Pantin, 1715. One of a pair of 17th-century silver sconces.

Two mahogany tea caddies, one containing tea canisters and a sugar canister by John Jacob of 1739, and the other with a covered sugar bowl of about 1740 by Edward Feline, with two earlier eighteenthcentury tea canisters by Simon Pantin.

The silver salvers on lion paw feet and key pattern brackets engraved with the arms of Yorke, Meller and Hutton are early nineteenth-century.

A silver cake basket pierced and engraved with the arms of Hutton, Yorke and Cust by Peter Archambo, 1734.

The three coffee pots are mid-eighteenth-century. The less heavily decorated one was presented by the Erddig servants to Philip Yorke II on his marriage to his first wife Annette Puleston in 1877.


THE DINING ROOM

This room was formed from the Best Bedchamber of Edisbury's late seventeenth-century house, which Meller then enlarged in the 172os by the addition of a dressing-room and closet. The Best Bedchamber became a dining-room at the end of the eighteenth century, when Philip Yorke I moved the State Bed to the first floor. It was further altered and enlarged in 1826-7, when the architect Thomas Hopper was commissioned by Simon Yorke II to remodel the room in a Neo-classical style.
Simon Yorke was probably introduced,to Hop- per through the latter's work at Penrhyn Castle, near Bangor, a neo-Norman castle begun in the 182os (also now the property of the National Trust).
At Erddig, Hopper chose a Graeco-Roman style, combining a Roman Doric order for the columns and pilasters with a Greek coffered ceiling. Hollow scagliola columns and pilasters were supplied by Joseph Browne & Co. of London for L148 19s. They appear to support the load-bearing beams, inserted in place of the original partitions, and divide the room into three pleasing compartments: a vestibule area to the north (near end) and at the south a serving area leading from the Servery.
The plasterwork was executed by Vowells and Batty, who were presumably London craftsmen, to judge by their large travelling expenses. Hopper obtained the carved white Siena marble chimneypiece for £25; he also altered the flues so that the new fireplace could be sited on the west wall.
The present colour scheme of green and white echoen Hopper's original, although it dates from the restoration of the house between 1974 and 1977.

TABLE SETTING

The table is usually lai.c1 either for dinner or for dessert, echoing a view of the room in an Edwardian photograph and based on Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. The damask table-cloth, with Egyptian motifs of acanthus, lotus, lions and sphinxes, dates from about 1830.

The Indian Tree dinner service was originally bought as a wedding present for Simon Yorke II and his new wife Margaret Holland in 1807.

The dessert service is Spode, c.1820. Each of the 24 pieces is painted with a named British bird on a blue ground.

The pair of three-light silver candelabra, 1798, was made by William Frisbie. The candles themselves are surmounted by self-descending shade holders.

PICTURES

FROM TOP LEFT OF FAR, SOUTH WALL:

? EDWARD WRIGHT (active 17305)
SimonYorke I (1696-1767)
The first of the Yorkes of Erddig. Painted around the time he inherited the estate, in 1733, from his uncle, John Meller, whose refurnishing of the house he had helped to supervise. He himself did little to the building.

BRITISH, 1835
Simon Yorke III (1811-94)
Painted the year after he inherited Erddig from his father, Simon II. He rarely left the estate, which he changed little.

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, RA (1727-88)
Philip Yorke I, MP (1743-18o4)
Son of Simon Yorke I. High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1786 and MP for Helston and Grantham, he was more interested in books than politics, writing The Royal Tribes of Wales (1799). He began the famous series of servant portraits in the 1790s. Probably painted in the Tate 1770s.

Attributed to WILLIAM HOARE of Bath (1707/8-92)
Anne Jemima Yorke (1754-70)
Pastel
he musical daughter of Simon Yorke I and sisterin-law of the above. The white dress, garlanded urn and probable date of 1770 all suggest the porirait is posthumous.

BRITISH SCHOOL (C.I840/50)
General the Hon. Sir Edward Cust (1794-1878)The father of Victoria Cust, who married Simon Yorke III in 1846. General, courtier, military historian and Christian writer.

Rev. JAMES WILLS (active 1740-77)
Philip Yorke, ist Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764)
His uncle Simon established the Yorke line at Erddig, through his marriage with Anne, the sister of John Meller. Painted in his robes as Lord Chancellor (1737-56), he bought Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire (also NT) in 1740.

Studio of FRANS SNYDERS (1597-1657)
Still-life with a Servant and a Dog
The original is in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. From the collection of Simon Yorke I's brother-in-law, James Hutton.

?CHARLES JERVAS(C.1675-1739) and THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, RA (1727-88)
John Meller (1665-1733)
A prosperous lawyer, he bought Erddig in 1716, adding the two wings between 1721 and 1724, and introducing much of the superb furniture still in the house, which he bequeathed to his nephew, Simon Yorke I. Painted c.1715 and drastically reworked in 1780 by Gainsborough, who retained only the face and background.

JACQUELINE GELDART
Simon Yorke IV (1903-66)
Signed and dated 1977
Penultimate owner of Erddig and sullen enemy of the National Coal Board, whose workings were undermining the house. Painted posthumously from a photograph taken in 1936.

JACQUELINE GELDART
Philip Yorke III (1905-78)
Signed and dated 1977
Tour operator, actor-manager and last squire of Erddig. He did much to preserve the decaying house, finally giving it to the National Trust in 1973.

GILBERT BALDRY
Louisa Scott, Mrs Yorke (1863-1951)
Dated (on frame) 1906
Daughter of the Rev. T. Scott, vicar of Chilton Foliat, Wiltshire, and second wife of Philip Yorke II, whom she married in 1902. They shared an enthusiasm for cycling.

LOUIS WILLIAM DESANGES (b.1822)
Philip Yorke II (1849-1922)
He spent much of his early life travelling and settled at Erddig only after the death in 1899 of his first wife, from whom he was separated. His care for the staff and for the contents of Erddig did much to preserve its special character.

After GEORGE ROMNEY(1734-1802)
Sir Brownlow Cust, Baron Brownlow (1744-1807)
A friend at Cambridge of Philip Yorke I, who married his sister Elizabeth (above) in 1770. He inherited Belton the same year and was raised to the peerage in 1776 in memory of his famous father, Speaker Cust. The original is at Belton.

FRANCIS COTES, RA (1726-70)
Elizabeth Cust, Mrs Yorke (1750-79)
Younger daughter of Sir John Cust, Speaker of the House of Commons, of Belton, Lincolnshire (alsoNT), she married Philip Yorke I as his first wife in 1770, the probable date of this picture. The crook garlanded with flowers certainly suggests that it is a marriage portrait.

GILBERT BALDRY
Simon Yorke III ( 811-94)
The owner of Victorian Erddig in old age. Said to have been painted from a photograph.

BRITISH, C.I815
Margaret Yorke (1778-1848) and her eldest son?,
Simon III (1811 —94)
Margaret Holland married Simon Yorke II in 1807. Although the label identifies the child as her eldest daughter, Anne (b. 8 f 0), it is more likely to be her first-born son. Painted by a provincial artist, perhaps John Walters, the author of the Servants' Hall portraits.

STATUETTES
ON CHIMNEYPIECE:
SEBASTIAN SLODTZ(1655-1726)
Mars and Venus
Bronze

Attributed CO MICHAEL ANGUIERPluto
Bronze

CURTAINS

The ornate gilt curtain rods were supplied by Gillow of Lancasterin the 1820s, although the curtains themselves date from the 1970s. The latter were designed by John Fowler, following some original Gillow drawings.

FURNITURE

The set of 22 mahogany dining-chairs was given to Simon Yorke II and his wife Margaret as a present by her brother, John Holland, in 1827. They were made by Gillow, and the chairs still retain their original red morocco leather upholstery.

The oak longcase clock was made by John Smith of Wrexham c.1826.

AT EACH END OF THE ROOM:
Two Regency serving-tables. On the far table sits a pair of mahogany-veneered knife boxes with serpentine fronts and silver mounts of about 1770; the cutlery itself bears the Yorke crest.

ON WINDOW WALL:

A Victorian overmantel glass is hung above a late Georgian mahogany sideboard. According to Louisa Matilda Yorke, the glass was bought locally in 1908 for £5.

TEXTILES

The Turkey carpet was, according to Louisa Yorke, acquired in 1902 for £ 10.
The Indian embroidered panel of wool and metal thread was bought for 18s in Wrexham.

CISTERN

IN FAR LEFT CORNER:
The Georgian marble wine cistern with gadrooned decoration may be the one supplied by the London mason and stone-carver John Deval in 1772. It was filled with 20 gallons or so of punch on the occasion of Simon Yorke II's coming-of-age party in 1792.

METALWORK

The two-handled silver cup and cover of 1787 was made by Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp and presented to Simon Yorke III, who was Captain of the Denbighshire Rifle Volunteers between 1862 and 1879.
The nickel-plated sweet-pea bowl was awarded in 1908 to Philip Yorke II and Mr Aitkin, head gardener.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
BY NEAR COLUMNS:

A pair of oak Barrels, made by a Wrexham cooper in 1910. Each supports a bronze bushel measure, one inscribed with the Meller crest and stating that it was used to collect the toll within the town of Wrexham in 1716. The other, dated 1663, was found by Louisa Yorke in the estate paint shop in 1903, where it had lain for many years.

ON AND UNDER SIDEBOARD:
The other weights and measures were made by John Smart for John Meller in 1716. They were used for measuring corn at the Kingsmill in Wrexham, an important part of the Erddig estate.

TURTLE

The stuffed and lacquered Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) was probably washed up on the North Wales coast. The shell of the Hawksbill was commonly used for making tortoiseshell objects.


THE SALOON

The saloon of Edisbury and Meller's house was about two-thirds the size of the present one, occupying the area furthest from the Dining Room. The smaller area was occupied by the Withdrawing Room, the first element in a typical Baroque apartment, with the Best Bedchamber (now the Dining Room) beyond.In 1771 Philip Yorke I created a larger saloon by removing the partition between the two rooms, but he took care to retain the late seventeenthcentury oak panelling with bolection mouldings. (The old division can still be discerned in the

panelling opposite the garden door.) The result was a symmetrical five-bayed room with matching chimneypieces.

CEILING

The decorative ceiling is made up of pressed steel panels. It dates from the early twentieth century, when it was introduced as a Eire precaution.

PICTURES

BRITISH, mid-eighteenth-century
Jane Seymour (1509-37)
Copper
Wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI.

BRITISH, mid-eighteenth-century Henry
VIII (1491-1547)
Copper
Pendant of the above.

UNKNOWN ARTIST
Expulsion ofAdam and Eve

DUTCH, late seventeenth-century
A Still-life with Flowers

After CASPAR NETSCHER(1639-84)
Princesses Albertina Agnes (1634-96) and Henrietta Catherina (1637-1708) of Orange-Nassau
Daughters of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (hence the orange), and Amalia van Solms.

UNKNOWN ARTIST
Dead Game

Manner of JAN WYCK (c.164o-17o2)
William III (1650-1702) giving orders in the field
From James Hutton's collection.

Manner Of PANDOLFO RESCHI (c.1643/4-99)
Battle Scene with Horsemen and Foot Soldiers
From Hutton's collection.

Manner Of PAULUS POTTER (1625-54)
Four Cows by the water's edge with a Boy in a Boat
Bears Potter's signature and date 166[?]
Probably a nineteenth-century pastiche.

FURNITURE

The room houses some of the finest pieces of furniture purchased by John Meller in the 1720s from leading London cabinetmakers. The arrangement has not changed substantially since the 1770s, although successive generations of Yorkes made minor alterations and added contemporary pieces. The current arrangement is based on the appearance of the Saloon in the late nineteenth century.
The set of eight carved and silvered chairs and matching settee in 1726 formed part of the furnishings of the Withdrawing Room to the Best Bedchamber (now part of the Saloon). Each is upholstered in crimson cut velvet of French origin, which is identical to that on a slightly earlier set of seat furniture at Powis Castle, Powys. By the nineteenth century the silvered surfaces had been overpainted with gold to match the gilded girandoles in the Saloon. The original silvering on the settee was restored by Edward Davies in 1910 and that on the chairs was carefully uncovered during the restoration of the 1970s.

IN CENTRE OF WEST WALL (FACING WINDOWS):

A Boulle bureau or dressing-table of about 1695, veneered with brass and tortoiseshell. It was purchased by Meller and originally stood between the windows in the Best Bedchamber. Philip Yorke I introduced it into the Saloon in the 1770s.

FLANKING BUREAU:

A pair of gilded sconces or girandoles, which are among the largest and finest of their kind. These are listed in an inventory of 1726 and were originally hung on the window wall of the original, smaller Saloon. They were probably the work of John Pardoe (active 1710-48). A bill received from Pardoe in September 172o describes 'a paire of large looking glass sconces' for £12 Ios. They are, however, dose in form to a silvered sconce in the Tapestry Room supplied by John Belchier, cabinetmaker `at ye Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard'.

ON WINDOW WALL:

Two tall giltwood pier-glasses, also supplied by Belchier and listed in bills of the 172os. The larger of these, with the more richly carved cresting and two profile heads, was bought by Meller in 1726 for £ so and is probably the `very large glass' referred to in the 1726 inventory, when it hung in the Best Bedchamber above the Boulle bureau. Its slightly smaller companion, surmounted by a plumed human mask, was acquired by Meller three years before for £36 and is likely to be the glass described in the Second Best Bedchamber in 1726. It probably hung above the gilt gesso side-table, with unusual scrolled, shell-like feet, which now stands in the Tapestry Room.

BELOW:

The nineteenth-century pier-tables have eighteenthcentury marble tops and may be part of the `two marble tables with walnut tree fraims' referred to in the 1726 inventory.
The pelmets of crimson silk damask survive from the mid-nineteenth century, although the curtains themselves are modern copies. In the 172os, the two windows of the original Withdrawing Room were hung with crimson velvet curtains to match the silvered furniture. The effect must have been striking.
The surviving walnut seat furniture from Meller's Saloon with their loose covers of cut velvet caffoy are now to be found in the Gallery on the upper floor.
An Irish Chippendale side-table, the apron boldly carved with a scrolling leaf pattern and with a scalloped shell centre.

ON SOUTH WALL:

A large vitrine, bought to complement the Boulle bureau, with two smaller ones on the west wall containing ceramics (see below) and an early nineteenth-century French bracket clock with cast and chased ormolu mounts by Nicolas de Lannay.Part of a large set of Maplewood Rout chairs.

TEXTILES

The Axminster carpet with a stylised diamond trellis pattern of blue and green flowers was bought by Simon Yorke III in about 1859. By 1906 it had been badly attacked by moth but was repaired by Lousia Yorke with wool bought in Wrexham.

GLASS AND CERAMICS

The George III cut-glass chandelierhas been in this room since 1846, having been given to Simon Yorke III and Victoria Cust as a wedding present by Lady Brownlow. lt was badly broken in 1903 by the butler who, when cleaning it, spun it round so often that it became unthreaded and crashed to the floor. lt was repaired with Bohemian glass by Sherratts of Chester in 1904 at a tost of £38.

ON CHIMNEYPIECE:

Garniture of three Dellt fluted polychrome vases in the Chinese manner, eighteenth-century.

ON BRACKETS:

A pair of Worcester vases and covers c.177o.

IN LEFT-HAND BOULLE VITRINE:

Four Urbino maiolica plates, one of which (dated 1543) depicts Camilla, a warrior maiden who features in Virgil's Aeneid. The others are later sixteenth-century.
Chocolate cups, with Chelsea red anchor marks, c.1755-8.
A glass beaker with engraved coats of arms, commemorating the marriage of Simon Yorke I and Dorothy Hutton in 1739.

IN RIGHT-HAND BOULLE VITRINE:

A late seventeenth-century ceremonial goblet, belonging to a small and interesting group of such pieces.
A pair of Chelsea plaice tureens, covers and stands, which matches the description in the 1756 Chelsea sale catalogue of `a beautiful pair of place sauceboats with spoons and plates'. They may be the '2 stands and two carp [sic] Sauce Boats 6 pieces in all' listed in the 1789 inventory.
Fight Chinese plates painted with The Judgement of Paris. They are mentioned in the 1770 inventory of the Yorkes' London house and possibly in the 1789 Erddig inventory. Louisa Yorke considered them improper and hid them at the back of the cabinet.
A Chelsea blue ground ecuelle and cover, painted in the style of John Donaldson with musical couples, c.1765.
Asparagus servers with Chelsea red anchor marks, c.1755-8.

ON BOULLE VITRINE ON SOUTH WALL:

A pair of early nineteenth-century English vases copying Meissen, modelled with yellow birds an blossoming branches, possibly Derby.

IN BOULLE VITRINE:

A small Worcester mug with a black transfer print of Frederick the Great, one of the '3 Kings of Prussia cupps' in the 1789 inventory.

ON BOULLE BUREAU:

A pair of Meissen two-handled baluster vases, late nineteenth-century.

PICTURE

BETWEEN SALOON AND TAPESTRY ROOM:

B— B-
The Saloon at Erddig, 1849
Inscribed: B. B. /Aug714?)9
Watercolour
Shows the room much as today, but with more porcelain, and before the introduction of the Boulle china cabinets.



THE TAPESTRY ROOM

This room was originally the 'Second Best Bed Chamber' of Meller's 1720s house. Like the other ground-floor rooms it was altered by Philip Yorke I in the 1770s, when he introduced the Soho tapestries (see below), which had previously hung in the 'Best Bed Chamber', a room almost identical in size to this.
The oak panelling dates from the early eighteenth century. The unusual pressed steel ceiling, like that in the Saloon, is one of six introduced in the early twentieth century as a form of fire prevention.

TAPESTRIES
The set of Soho tapestries was commissioned by Meller in about 1720 for the Best Bedchamber. Simon Yorke I supervised their delivery to

Erddig.The central scenes, set within decorative borders of fruit and exotic birds, have traditionally been identified with the biblical story of Solomon and Sheba, but seem to be more generalised and non-narrative in character. The figures, shown eating and playing music in elaborate outdoor settings, may have been inspired by African, Chinese or other exotic sources. Three from the original set of four are hung here; one is in store.

FURNITURE

The layout reflects the character of the room during its Edwardian heyday, when it was primarily used as a room of display for the Soho tapestries and the Delft vase.The two mahogany armchairs in the French taste were probably made by John Cobb (b.1778), the celebrated cabinetmaker and upholsterer of St Martin's Lane, London.

BETWEEN WINDOWS:

The large silvered pier-glass, for which John Belchier was paid £21 in 1723, was intended to complement the silvered suite of seat furniture in Meller's Withdrawing Room. It too was overpainted in gold in the nineteenth century and restored by the National Trust.

BELOW:

The carved and silvered gesso pier-table is the `silver table with glass top and Coats of Arms, cut and gilt in itt' which was supplied to Meller in 1726. The mirrored top with Meller's heraldic device painted in verre iglomisi (painted glass) was badly damaged in 1853 when Philip Yorke II, then aged four, smashed it with a toy hammer he had been given as a birthday present.
A carved and gilt gesso side-table. Probably the `gold table and leather cover' mentioned as being in this room in 1726.

BESIDE THE FIREPLACE:

A nineteenth-century antiquarian fire-screen with a late seventeenth-century embroidered panel depicting Susannah and the Elders.

CERAMICS

The large Delft vase is of particular interest. lt bears the royal arms of William and Mary and is probably one of those made by Adriaen Kocks c.169o--1700 for Hampton Court, resembling designs for such vases by Daniel Marot. By family tradition, it was a present from Queen Anne to Mrs Wanley, a relation of the Hutton family. It was probably brought to Erddig in 1787 and was listed here in 1865.



THE CHINESE ROOM

This formed the dressing-room of the 'Second Best Bed Chamber' until the late eighteenth century, when Philip Yorke I transformed it into a `porcelain cabinet' and hung the walls with Chinese wallpaper. The hand-painted vignettes illustrate various ways of earning a living: three an the window wall are English copies. The surrounding block-printed borders of flowers and butterflies are European.In the late nineteenth century the room was used by Victoria Yorke as a boudoir and many of the furnishings were introduced by her. A photograph of her hangs above the door from the Tapestry Room.

Through the door in the small area beyond, which was known as the Flower Room, the Yorkes gained access to the family pew in the Chapel.

PICTURES

The walls are hung with a series of watercolours and small oil paintings, including High Life and Low Life, both painted in 1877 by Philip Yorke II, and a pair of portraits of the Rev. Thomas James Scott and Mrs Sophia Ann Scott, his parents-in-law.

KATHERINE READ (1723-78)
Simon Yorke II (1771-1834) and his sister Etheldred (1772-96)
Pastel; oval
The two eldest children of Philip Yorke I, by his first wife, Elizabeth Cust. Read was a fashionable Scottish portraitist, mainly in pastel, who worked in London from 1754. This must have been painted shortly before she left for India in 1775.

FURNITURE

FLANKING FIREPLACE:
The walnut bookcases were made by one of the Erddig carpenters for Victoria Yorke out of earlier pieces.

ABOVE FIREPLACE:

The `landskip' glass is probably one of four supplied for the house in 1723-4 by Belchier and is flanked by the original glass candle arms.
Pairs of early nineteenth-century green and gilt decorated brackets with trefoil-shaped shells, the lower supported by a pineapple motif.

IN CORNER:

A late nineteenth-century box Ottoman with upholstery made by Victoria Yorke.
The early eighteenth-century black japanned corner cupboard was given to Victoria Yorke by her children as a birthday present.
The eighteenth-century French ormolu and crystal chandelier is one of a pair (the other is in the Drawing Room). According to Louisa Yorke, they were purchased at a sale in Bournemouth for £5 5s.
The small eighteenth-century Dutch walnut marquilry cabinet is probably an apprentice's piece and was purchased about 1908 for £5.

CERAMICS

ON BOOKCASES BESIDE FIREPLACE:

Two Japanese Buddhist Rakan (disciples), second half of seventeenth century. Listed in 1789 as 'China beggar men with stands'.

IN DUTCH MARQUETRY CABINET:

A collection of blue-and-white porcelain, some of which may be that described in the 1726 inventory.
A Chelsea broth bowl and cover, painted with exotic birds possibly by J. H. O'Neale, and perhaps the Syllabub cup' listed in the 1789 inventory.



THE LIBRARY

The Library was not created until 1775, when Philip Yorke I altered and enlarged what had been the Little Parlour of Edisbury's 1680s house. In that year he brought down the collection of books from Meller's Study, a room situated above the Chinese Room.
According to Louisa Yorke, the 1,500 or so volumes were arranged and catalogued by Victoria Yorke and her father, Sir Edward Cust, between 1848 and 1850, and then again in 1902 by herself and her friends, the Misses Robinson, after many spring cleanings had upset the order. The collection contains good standard volumes of the kind frequently found in a country gentleman's library with few outstanding or rare items, although there are rather more legal books than usual — a reflection of Meller's profession. Curiously, the stacks are marked, and the volumes arranged, from right to left — the reverse of the normal practice.

PICTURES

HUNG AROUND WALLS AND SHELVES:
A selection of engravings of the Yorkes and their kinsmen and documents, including the design of about 1778 for the stained-glass windows of nearby Marchwiel church, for which James Wyatt designed a tower erected by Philip Yorke I in 1788.

JOSEPH ALLEN (1769-1839)
Twelve wash drawings after portraits at Erddig, Chirk Castle and elsewhere, commissioned by Philip Yorke I while preparing his The Royal Tribes of Wales (1799):
Humphrey Stafford or Bagot, ist Duke of Buckingham, KG (1402-60)

Catherine of Berain (1535-91)
Sir Thomas Egerton, Viscount Brackley (1540-1617) Sir John Vaughan (1603-74)
Sir Orlando Bridgeman (16o6?-74)
Sir Thomas Myddelton, KG (1586-1666) George, Ist Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1648-89) Sir Thomas Hanmer, 4th Bt (1677-1746)Sir John Trevor of Brynkinalt (1637-1717) William Williams, ist Bt (1634-1700) Humphrey Lloyd (1527-68)
Sir John Wynn, 5th Bt, of Wynnstay
(1627/8-1718/19)
BETTY RATCLIFFE (C.1735-C.1810) Unknown man, called William Shakespeare Pencil

FURNITURE
The mahogany library table in the manner of Thomas Chippendale was used by Philip Yorke I from 177o. On it is a Regency black marble inkstand made by B. Vulliamy with an assortment of paperweights and knives.

AROUND ROOM:
The set of walnut side-chairs is probably that described in the 1726 inventory as being in John Meller's 'Breakfast Room'. They are of two different designs, having vase-shaped splats with inset panels of `seaweed marquetry'.
Other eighteenth-century pieces include: The walnut veneered card- or tea-table of c. 1720.The pier-glasses with bevelled glass borders were probably supplied by John Belchier. The frames are japanned and gilded with rosettes and trelliswork.
The pair of terrestrial and celestial globes was made c.175o by W. and T. M. Bardin of Fleet Street.

ON NORTH WALL:

The mid-nineteenth-century set of bookshelves was made from earlier pieces of woodwork. It may have come from Plas Newydd, Liangollen, the home of Simon III's brother, General John Yorke (see p.23).
The oak cigar cabinet was made by the estate joiner William Gittins and given by Louisa Yorke and her children to Philip Yorke II at Christmas 1908. Inside, a label explains that the legs and framing were made from pieces of the old staircase from Hafod y Bwlch, the side panels from a piece of furniture from the Estate Office, the small brackets out of an old drawer from the attic and the lid from an old panel from the hall of nearby Plas Grono.
The Regency bronze hanging lamp with four burners originally had glass globes and was fuelled by Colza oil, a vegetable oil derived from oil seed rape. In 1902 it was converted for paraffin.



THE ENTRANCE HALL
(MUSIC ROOM)

This room served as the principal Entrance Hall until the late nineteenth century, when the Yorkes began to use the lower ground-floor Tribes Room as a more convenient and less draughty entrance. lt then became a music room, although always called simply 'the Hall'.In the 177os Philip Yorke I had remodelled;the room to create a strictly symmetrical space, blocking up a door an the east wall (behind the pier-glass) which had led directly into the Saloon, introducing a false door (behind the piano), and making a door in the south wall into what was to become the Drawing Room. The Hall was stripped of its original panelling, and light Neo-classical decoration was introduced. The alterations have been attributed to James Wyatt: he was certainly consulted by Philip Yorke I in the 177os and craftsmen with whom he regularly collaborated received payments for interior work at Erddig. The plaster frieze with anthemion motif was executed in August—September 1773 by Joseph Rose & Company, the most celebrated plasterers of their day. The chimneypiece was supplied by the workshop of John Devall the Younger (1728-94), a mason closely associated with Wyatt.

PICTURES
FACING WINDOWS:

Sir GODFREY KNELLER, Bt (1646/9-1723)
George, Ist Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1648-89)
The infamous judge. Following the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, he sentenced around 15o of the rebels to death in the `bloody assizes'. He is shown in his robes as Baron Jeffreys, which he was created in 1685 by James II. He was Lord Chancellor from September 1685 until the King's overthrow in 1688, and died in the Tower of London the following year.
? Sir GODFREY KNELLER, Bt (1646/9-1723) and Studio
Sir Thomas Jeffreys
An elder brother of Judge Jeffreys, he became a Catholic and served as a consul in Spain. Painted while he was in England, 1686-7 (like the portrait of his brother). He wears the robes of the Order of Alcantara.

BRITISH, early eighteenth-century
Margaret Dodwell, Mrs Southcomb
Oval
Daughter of Dr Henry and Ann Dodwell, who were possibly forebears of Margaret Holland, the wife of Simon Yorke II.

JOHN VERELST (active 1698-1734)
Matthew Hutton of Newnham, Hertfordshire (d.1728) Signed and dated 1715
His daughter and heir Dorothy married Simon Yorke I in 1739. The wealth that the Yorkes inherited in 1770 on the death of Hutton's son James transformed the family's fortunes.

OVER FIREPLACE:

AfterSir PETER LELY(1618-80)
Charles II (1630-85)
Contemporary copy of the portrait at Euston Hall, Suffolk, showing the King in his Garter robes.

JOHN VERELST (active 1698-1734)
Mrs Matthew Hutton
Signed and dated 1715
Pendant to the picture on the other side of the fireplace.

Follower of Sir GODFREY KNELLER, Bt (1646/9-1723)
Dorothy Taylor, Mrs William Kinaston

Attributed to THOMAS MURRAY (1663-1754)
William Kinaston the Younger of Ruyton Hall, Shropshire
Pendant to the above.

ENOCH SEEMAN(c.1694-1744/5)
Elizabeth Cartwright, Viscountess Tyrconnel (d.178o) Daughter of William Cartwright of Marnham,
Nottinghamshire, she married in 1732, as his second wife, Sir John Brownlow, Viscount Tyrconnel. Companion to Kneller's portrait of Tyrconnel, below.

RIGHT OF ORGAN:

Sir GODFREY KNELLER, Bt (1646/9-1723)
Sir John Brownlow, Viscount Tyrconnel (169o-1754) Signed and dated 1720
Picture-collector, patron of the arts and frustrated politician. He was the nephew of 'Young Sir John' Brownlow, the builder of Belton, which he inherited in 1702. His grand-niece Elizabeth Cust married Philip Yorke I. Painted the year after he was created Viscount Tyrconnel.

BRITISH, early eighteenth-century
An Unknown Lady (? Mrs Ann Dodwell)
Oval
Possibly the mother of Margaret Southcomb (above) in half-mourning. It is apparently by the same hand and presumably painted as a companion to it.

FURNITURE

In the early eighteenth century the room had been furnished with ten black leather chairs, marbletopped tables against each of the window piers, backgammon and ombre tables, and a gilded screen to provide some protection from draughts.

ON WEST (WINDOW) WALL:

The pier-glasses, c.1720, with walnut-veneered frames, were probably supplied by John Belchier. The shape of the upper plate and the inverted widow's peak at the apex are similar to that found on one of the gilded pier-glasses in the Saloon.

ON OPPOSITE (EAST) WALL:

An ebonised and giltwood pier-glass and table in a Rococo revival style, bought at a sale in Wrexham in 1905.
The set of six Hepplewhite period chairs with interlaced splats was purchased in 1880 in Chester by Victoria Yorke.
The rectangular oak refectory table, the upper part of which is sixteenth-century, was discovered in the pigsty in 1900 and repaired by John Jones, the Erddig joiner, in 1919. He made a top from a piece of oak panelling removed from the attic after a fire and repaired the frieze. He also pieced in new sections to the legs to designs by Philip Yorke II.
The early Victorian ormolu chandelier was probably a wedding present to Simon and Victoria Yorke in 1846 from Lady Brownlow. lt was originally a Colza oil lamp which was converted for paraffin in 1903.
The ormolu bracket clock in French-Egyptian style signed `Rieusset H Gen du Roy' was inherited by Philip Yorke III from the Yorke Lodge family.
The Victorian mahogany ebonised display cabinet contains a number of silver trophies and christening pieces presented to Simon IV and Philip III Yorke.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The chamber organ was purchased in 1865 by Philip Yorke II, then aged 15, for £227 2s 4d, using a legacy of Lroo from his godfather; the balance was found by his father. It was made by Bevington & Sons, London, a firm specialising in moderately sized and smaller organs. The Victorian Gothic case, with croqueted finials, pierced frieze and polychromed decoration to the pipes and the end panels, resembles many contemporary ecclesiastical instruments. Also by Bevingtons is the 'clumb' organist, a mechanical organ player.
The Klems Baby Brand piano was bought in Stuttgart for £45 by Philip Yorke II in the 187os, while he was a student in Germany.
The harp lute, c.1810, with black lacquered body and applied gilt transfer decoration, was made by Edward Light of London.
The brass euphonium was made by J. Higham Ltd in the late nineteenth century.

ON TABLE IN CENTRE OF ROOM:

A number of mechanical musical players, including an automaton of an old man playing an upright piano made in France c.1900, and a cylindrical musical box in a rosewood case which played twelve tunes. The 'Polygon' musical box with metal discs and the `Ariston' pneumatic musical disc player with cardboard discs were both made at the turn of the century. The Edison Standard Phonograph with sound horn from New Jersey played cylindrical vinyl records in cardboard tubes.

CERAMICS

ON GILTWOOD PIER—TABLE:

A set of three Chinese famille verte hexagonal vases and covers, K'ang Hsi period, c.1700.
A pair of large Japanese Imari vases and covers, c.1700 with stands made during Wyatt's redecoration of the room in the 1770s.
Two Chinese brown biscuit hawks, mid-eighteenthcentury.




THE DRAWING ROOM

Formerly Meller's Eating Parlour, this room, like the Entrance Hall, was remodelled in a Neo-classical style by Philip Yorke I in 1773, with plasterwork by Joseph Rose's team and a carved marble fireplace attributed to John Devall. The present colour scheme, and the arrangement of the room as a picture cabinet, is broadly based on a description in Louisa Yorke's Facts and Fancies (1923). The last Philip Yorke used it as a bed-sitting room (as can be seen in the photograph on the piano).

PICTURES

WEST (WINDOW) WALL, RIGHT PIER, TOP TO BOTTOM:

FLORENTINE, ? sixteenth-century
Christ succoured by Angels in the Wilderness, after the Temptation
Copper
Manner of JAN BRUEGHEL I (1568-1625)
River Scene with Boats Copper

? GASPARD DUGHET (1615-75)
Landscape with Travellers and a Distant River Valley Framed as a pendant to the picture only in the manner of Dughet, but possibly an authentic late work by this artist.

LEFT PIER, TOP TO BOTTOM:

BRITISH, mid-eighteenth-century
Clifton Rocks
A view of the River Avon west of Bristyl.

ITALIAN, C.I700
Landscape with Figures

GASPARD DUGHET (15I5-75), manner Of L'ORIZZONTE (1662-1749)
Two Men Conversing by a Lake Beneath a Castle

SOUTH (FAR) WALL, TOP ROW:

FLEMISH-ITALIAN, C.I700
Landscape with Diana at the Chase From James Hutton's collection.
? FLEMISH, early seventeenth-century
Kitchen Scene and Still-life

JAN FRANS VAN BLOEMEN, called L'ORIZZONTE (1662-1749)
A Woman Conversing with Two Men an a Path

MIDDLE ROW:

After PHILIPPE MERCIER (1689-1760)
Wilks as Captain Plume in 'The Recruiting Officer' Metal
Act III, scene I of George Farquhar's play (1706). Plume attempts to seduce Rose, and to enlist her brother, Bullock, into the army. Sergeant Kite sits with a glass of wine.

Attributed to JOSEPH VAN AKEN (C.1699-1749) A Group of Gentlemen Drinking
The man in the turban may be a self-portrait of the artist.
From James Hutton's collection.

BOTTOM ROW:

FLEMISH, seventeenth-century
An Extensive Landscape
Canvas laid on panel

BRITISH, eighteenth-century
An Unknown Lady called 'Mary Tudor'
An eighteenth-century pastiche of a sixteenth-century portrait.

NETHERLANDISH, C.I700
Buildings by a River
Panel

DUTCH, seventeenth-century
? ChiefJustice Sir John Glynne (1603-66) Panel; oval
The identification is traditional.

FLEMISH-ITALIAN, C.I700
Classical Landscape with Ruins and Women Canvas laid on panel

EAST (FACING WINDOW) WALL, TOP ROW:

Attributed tO JAN GLAUBER (1646—C.1726)
Classical Landscape with Mercury, Herse and Aglaurus The sisters Herse and Aglaurus return from the festival of Minerva and are seen by the god Mercury, who falls in love with Herse.

? JEAN-BAPTISTE MONNOYER (1636-99)
Still-life with Flowers
From James Hutton's collection.

The Hon. ELIZABETH CUST (1776-1858) after
ELIZABETH SIRANI (1638-65)
Girl with a Basket of Doves
Painted by the niece of the Elizabeth Cust who married Philip Yorke I. She catalogued the picture collection at Belton and was a talented copyist.

?JOSEPH VAN DER VOORT (active 1714-54/5)
Landscape with Huntsmen
Inscribed: ? P Vandervoorde etf A° 17116?)

After AMBROSIUS BENSON (active c.1515—d.155o)
The Magdalen
The original is in the Royal Collection.

BOTTOM ROW:

Manner Of NICOLAES BERCHEM (1620-83)
Farmyard with Cattle and Figures

DUTCH, seventeenth-century
Still-life with Food and Drink
Panel

After ? MARCELLO VENUSTI (1512/15-79)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria
Christ asks the Samaritan woman for a drink from the well, much to her astonishment because of the traditional hatred between their two races: Whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never suffer thirst any more.' Derived ultimately from a lost painting by Michelangelo.

NORTH (FIREPLACE) WALL, TOP ROW:

? DUTCH,seventeenth- or eighteenth-century
Still-life with Peaches
From James Hutton's collection.

Manner of PIETER SNAYERS (1592-1667)
A Cavalry Battle

BRITISH, eighteenth-century
Still-life with Parrot and Fruit
From James Hutton's collection.

DUTCH, seventeenth- or eighteenth-century
Still-life with Lemons

FURNITURE

ABOVE FIREPLACE:

The early eighteenth-century chimney glqss may have been supplied to Meller by John Belchier.

RIGHT OF FIREPLACE:

The pole-screen was made for Victoria Yorke incorporating a photograph of a dog from The Illustrated London News.
An early eighteenth-century chinoiserie black lacquered cabinet with elaborate brass mounts.

ON FAR (SOUTH) WALL:

The mid-Georgian mahogany glazed cabinet was bought in 1904.
The eighteenth-century French chandelier is paired with one in the Chinese Room bought in Bournemouth for £5 5s, as was the Persian carpet of about 1900.
The set of mos mahogany settee and chairs in the French style was probably supplied to Philip Yorke I by the cabinetmaker John Cobb. They have been reupholstered in black horse hair by the National Trust.
The boudoir grand pianoforte was made by Collard & Collard.

THE SOUTH INNER HALLAND STAIRS

Although essentially the back stairs of the house, this area was used as a main thoroughfare.

FURNITURE

The oak tourt cupboard with carved front is Jacobean and probably Welsh in origin.
The set of eight tubular bells suspended from a mahogany frame dates from 1900.
The pair of varnished oak hall-chairs is carved with the Scott crest.

CERAMICS
ON SHELVES:

Mostly Chinese famille rose and blue-and-white porcelain of the Quianlong period (1736-95).A pair of square Derby bowls in the Japanese Arita style, c.1760.

PICTURES

JOSEPH ALLEN (1769-1839) after JONATHAN Richardson (1664/5-1745)
Sir Robert Walpole, ist Earl of Orford (1676-1745)
The first Prime Minister (1715-17, 1721-42), portrayed in green hunting dress as Deputy Ranger of Richmond Park.

Sir FRANCIS GRANT, PRA (1803-78)
Mathilda, Mrs Holland (d.19o5)
Wife of the below. According to Grant's sitter book, painted in 1858. She is shown in mourning.

Sir FRANCIS GRANT, PRA (1803-78)
The Rev. William Holland (d.1878)
Rector of Cold Norton, Essex. Painted in 1851.




THE RED BEDROOM

The Lobby into the Red Bedroom is hung with a late nineteenth-century machine-printed wallpaper of peacocks. The door to the right leads to the former nurseries. During the remodelling of the Dining Room by Thomas Hopper in the 182os, the Red Bedroom was repanelled (perhaps reusing some of the discarded wainscot). Later in the century it became a bedroom, with an adjoining dressingroom, for Victoria Yorke.

PICTURES

The two cut-out paper silhouettes on red foil Background were made by Betty Ratcliffe, lady's maid and companion to Dorothy Yorke, mother of Philip Yorke I (see p.68). One depicts the arms of the Yorke and Hutton families, the other-Yorke and Cust; the latter was probably made to celebrate Philip's marriage to Elizabeth Cust in 177o.
The Raphael cartoons. The seven engravings after the cartoons in the Royal Collection are mentioned in the inventory of 1726.

BRITISH, eighteenth-century
The Bird's Nester
Labelled as of Matthew Hutton, father of James Hutton, from whose collection it came. However, it is not a portrait, but copied from a seventeenthcentury original, which is perhaps by Isaac Fuller.

After Sir GODFREY KNELLER, Bt (1646/9-1723) Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, KG (1689-1700)
The eldest son of Queen Anne and the only one of her many children to survive infancy.

FURNITURE

The Chippendale period mahogany four-poster bed of about 1760 is traditionally said to have been designed for Philip Yorke I's sitter, Anne Jemima, who died of consumption in 1770, aged sixteen. It incorporates a mechanism for raising the head of the bed or lifting one side of it. The bed-hangings were renewed in the mid-nineteenth century and largely survive.
The late Georgian oak hanging cupboard, marked `G.R. 1719', was accepted by the Yorkes from a farmer on the estate in lieu of rent.
Georgian mahogany kneehole dressing-table.
The early eighteenth-century pier-glass and dressingtable glass with walnut frames may have been supplied to Meller in the 1720s.



THE WHITE BEDROOM

So called after the painted seventeenth-century panelling introduced during the nineteenth century from Little Erddig, a manor house added to the estate in 1807 and partly burnt down in 1886.

PICTURES

The walls are hung with a variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century topographical prints and watercolours, notably a pen and ink drawing of the east front of Erddig of about 173o.

SAMUEL PROUT (1783-1852)
A View in a Continental Town
Possibly a view of Rouen.
Watercolour

JOHN DOWNMAN, ARA (1750-1824)
General Richard England
Watercolour
Signed and dated 18o5
Veteran of the .American War of Independence, Lieutenant-Governor of Plymouth, and one of the first colonists of western Upper Canada. Downman was born in nearby Ruabon and specialised in portraits of this kind in chalk and wash.

FURNITURE

The Chippendale period mahogany four-poster bed still retains some of its mid-nineteenth-century bedhangings: a printed cotton chintz of naturally drawn flower sprays of 186o, similar to a series sold by Hindley & Sonsand printed at Bannister Hall in Preston. The other chintz covering the armchair and curtains was introduced by the National Trust in 1976.

BETWEEN WINDOWS:

The English walnut Bureau cabinet, with the upper section enclosing panels of mirror glass, is possibly the piece supplied to Meller by John Pardoe for LIo 5s, mentioned in a payment of 1716-17.



THE SOUTH LANDING

PICTURES

MOSES GRIFFITH (1747-1819)
Four watercolours:
A View of Coed Coch, nearAbergele
The seat of J. Lloyd Wynne, a kinsman of Philip Yorke I's second wife.
A View of Coed Coch, nearAbergele

A View of Teyrdan Hall
The family home of Margaret Holland, who married Simon Yorke II,
A View of the West Front of Erddig from the Park

BRITISH, late seventeenth-century
Reputed Portrait of Tony Leigh in the character of Dominic in `The Spanish Friar'
Leigh was a gentleman actor, active from 1672 until his death in 1692. But the identification seems no older than the early nineteenth-century inscription, and this may simply be a piece of anti-clerical satire.

VENETIAN, C.1700

Cimon and Pero (Roman Charity)
A popular exemplar of filial piety: Cimon, an aged prisoner awaiting execution, is fed by his daughter Pero, who offers him her breast. Perhaps after Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734).

FURNITURE

The English seventeenth-century blackjapanned longcase clock with chinoiserie decoration is signed 'William Andrews, London' and is mentioned in John Meller's cash book of 1709-11.

RIGHT OF DOOR TO LONG GALLERY:

An eighteenth-century triangular lantern case for candle lighting. The glass bell above protects the ceiling from smoke.

CERAMICS

The Bow figure of `Liberty' by the Muses modeller in the Meissen style, c.1755. This figure can be associated with Thomas Frye, one of the founders of the Bow factory in 1744. Mezzotints by Frye hang in the Blue Bedroom.




THE ATTICS

The staircase leading to the attics is hung with a variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century engravings, notably The Riot in Broad Street, 7th June 178o, after Francis Wheatley, which includes the figure of Sir Barnard Turner, from whom Louisa Yorke was descended. On the Attic Landing itself are photographs of servants taken between 1887 and 1912. Each is accompanied by verses written by Philip Yorke II.
This floor contains nine rooms which housed fifteen beds in the early eighteenth century. In addition, some ofJohn Meller's servants slept an the first floor either in rooms adjacent to the principal bedrooms or in the passages. The attic floor was occupied by the female staff including the housekeeper, until a suite of rooms was set up for her at the south end of the house; male staff slept in quarters over the stables and in outhouses.

FURNITURE
Much of the original eighteenth-century furniture was disposed of in the nineteenth century. The rooms were later furnished and decorated with items no longer required by the family.



THE FIRE ATTIC

To the right at the top of the stairs is the Fire Attic, so named after a fire which broke out in the roof above in 1907. It was occupied by Alice Jones, head laundry maid, in the early part of this century.

FURNITURE

The four-poster servant's bed with sloping canopy, designed to fit under the eaves, is similar to those made by Gillow of Lancaster in the late eighteenth century. The feather mattress is supported by sacking strung from the frame with cords and kept in place with a covered wooden headboard.

TEXTILES

The rug is a rare Scottish or `Kidderminster' carpet, c.1800, made up of narrow widths joined together. Few such rugs have survived because inexpensive textiles in everyday use usually wear out and are then discarded.




THE CLOCK ATTIC

The room beyond, known as the Clock Attic, is shown as a sitting-room. Here the housemaids would spend the afternoons working together, sewing and mending until tea-time at four o'clock. This was Matilda `Tillie' Boulter's bedroom when she was head housemaid in the early 1900s. She spent most of her free time practising the violin and occasionally joined Louisa Yorke's father, the Rev. Thomas Scott, in playing duets.




THE ATTIC BEDROOM

The room on the left at the top of the stairs was shared by Bessie Gittins, engaged in 1909 as nursery maid, and Edith Haycock, second housemaid. By 1911, at her own request, Bessie had left the Nursery to become third housemaid. The bedroom is simply furnished with two fron bedsteads, which were considered more hygienic than wooden ones. The screens provided a modicum of privacy. No gas or electricity were installed by the Yorkes, lighting being provided by oil lamps and candles.




THE WEST ROOM
(NURSERY)

In the 1720s this was known as `Ye Worked [ needlework] Room', and was furnished with a bed lined with green satin, and with a quilted green counterpane, walnut chairs and a black japanned cabinet and chest. Later called the West Room, it is now shown as a nursery.

TOYS

ON SOUTH WALL:

The doll's-house of four rooms was adapted during the nineteenth century from an early eighteenthcentury oak cupboard on a stand. Much of the furnishings dates from 1840-80, including the Waltershausen furniture and some homemade pieces, notably the embroidered satin curtains made from a waistcoat given to Simon III on his comingof-age in 1832. The inscription 'VTaste Not Want Not' imitates that painted above the arches of the New Kitchen.
The white teddy bear, dressed in the clothes of Philip Yorke III, and the elephant, both seated in the Victorian wheelbarrow pram, date from about 1900.
The wooden Noah's Ark was made in Germany and given to Simon Yorke IV on his fifth birthday in 1908. There were originally 30o animals and eight people in the set.
The wooden train, comprising engine and three wagons, was also made for Simon's fifth birthday by the estate foreman, William Gittins.
The Regency rocking Korse was used by Philip Yorke III.

PICTURES

GILBERT BALDRY
Simon IV (1903-66) and Philip III (1905-78) Yorke as children
Sons of Philip Yorke II by his second wife, Louisa Scott; the last of the Yorkes of Erddig. Numerous other photographs of them are hung here.



THE BATHROOM

This room probably served as a servant's bedchamber for the West Room until the introduction of plumbing at the end of the nineteenth century. Prior to this, bathing was undertaken in hip-baths set up in front of bedroom fires. In the eighteenth century the family had bathed in cold water in the Bath House sited in the park.
The nineteenth-century portable shower worked by releasing hot water from the cylindrical tank above, supported on pipes painted to imitate bamboo. The water was then recirculated by use of the hand- pump. It was still very much in use in the last Philip Yorke's day.

PICTURES

The walls are hung with mainly maritime prints and watercolours, including one which shows the shower in action.

THE GALLERY

The only room to run from east to west across the full depth of the house, the Gallery has changed little since the Tate seventeenth century, when Joshua Edisbury commissioned a local carpenter, Philip Rogers of Eyton, to undertake joinery work at Erddig. Rogers probably installed the oak panelling, which would originally have been painted or grained; it was varnished in the nineteenth century.
Intended as a place for both recreation and contemplation, long galleries were traditionally used during inclement weather as a place for exercise and later on as picture galleries, usually for the display of family portraits.
Until the creation of the State Bedroom in the Tate eighteenth century, the Gallery was the most important room on the first floor.

PICTURES

In 1732 Loveday recorded that the Gallery was lung with yc Sibylls, all lengths'. These pictures acquired by Meller and representing divinatory priestesses of Apollo were sold in 1787. In the same year, shortly after the death of his mother, Dorothy (nee Hutton), Philip Yorke I introduced the present seventeenth-century portraits inherited from the Hutton family and originally hung in the Yorke's London house in Park Lane.

NORTH WALL (LEFT—HAND SIDE):

After MICHIEL MIEREVELDT (1567-1641)

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (1596-1662)
Panel
Daughter ofJames I, married Frederick of Bohemia in 1613.

After MICHIEL MIEREVELDT (1567-1641)
Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau (1567-1625)
Panel
Not, as labelled, Frederick V, King of Bohemia, but the second son of William the Silent and the outstanding military commander of his time.

JACOB FRANSZ. VAN DER MERCK (C.1610-64)
Major Henry Meoles
Panel
Signed and dated 1649
In 1658 he received his commission in William Killigrew's regiment, which had served in the Dutch army during the Thirty Years War.

AfterDAVID TENIERS the Younger (1610-90) Dutch Woman Pouring Water
Panel

After FERDINAND VAN KESSEL (1648-96)
Monkey Barbers
Panel

DUTCH, c.164o
King Gustavus Adolphus 11(1594-1632)
Warrior king of Sweden, 1611-32.

NORTH WALL (RIGHT-HAND SIDE):

JACOB FRANSZ. VAN DER MERCK (C.I610-64)
Captain Meoles
Panel
Signed and dated 1649
Not, as labelled, Robert Bertie, Ist Earl of Lindsey (1582-1642), but the son of Major Meoles (above).

Manner of DAVID TENIERS the Younger (1610-90)
Cat Musicians
Panel

BRITISH
A Woman at a window

After CORNELIUS JOHNSON (1593-1664)
Thomas Coventry, ist Lord Coventry (1578-1640)
In his robes as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, the purse of office over his left shoulder.

Manner of CORNELIUS JOHNSON (1593-1664)
An Unknown Woman
Panel
Inscribed: Anno 162 P61 /Aetatis [?]

BRITISH, I6I?I
An Unknown Woman Panel

BRITISH, ? early seventeenth-century
Sir Thomas Egerton, Viscount Brackley (1540-1616/17)
Panel
Lord Chancellor, 1603-16/17.

SOUTH WALL (LEFT-HAND SIDE):

JOHN SHACKLETON (active 1742-67)
Thomas Kinaston (d.1752)
Signed and dated 173 [?[
Second son of William and Jane Kinaston of Ruyton Hall, Shropshire.

? Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, PRA (1723-'92)
Edward Kinaston (d.1792)
The grandson of William and Jane Kinaston,
painted in 1760. His daughter Margaret left these family portraits to the Yorkes, who were cousins.

After DAVID TENIERS the Younger (1610-9o)
A Cordial Seller
Panel
The original (Autumn from a set of the Four Seasons) is in the National Gallery.

BRITISH, eighteenth-century
Monk and Nun
Mentioned in undated early nineteenth-century inventory.

Manner of M ARCUS GHEERAERTS the Younger (1561/2-1635)
An Unknown Woman
Panel
Inscribed: Anfit 1629 /AEta suae. 41

Attributed to MICHIEL MIEREVELDT (1567-1641)
Supposed portrait of the Duke of Buckingham
Panel

BETTY RATCLIFFE (C.1735-C.1810) after ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599-1641)
Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-65) and his Family Drawing
According to a label on the back, copied in 1766.

BETTY RATCLIFFE (C.1735—C.I810)
View of Conway Castle, 1782
Coloured chalks

SOUTH WALL (RIGHT-HAND SIDE):
AfterJ. A. RAVESTEYN (C.I570-1657)
Prince Frederick Henry, Crown Prince Palatine (1614-29)
Panel
Inscribed as painted in 1623
The eldest son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, King of Bohemia, and Princess Elizabeth, 'the Winter Queen', daughter ofJames I.

BETTY RATCLIFFE (c.1735—c.1810) after HUBERT DROUAIS the Younger (1699-1767)
The Sons of the Duc de Bouillon as Montagnards According to a label on the back, copied from a print in 1765. The original picture is in the Frick Collection, New York.

DUTCH, 1629
An Unknown Boy with a Bird
Panel
Said to be a child of the Winter Queen of Bohemia. If so, Prince Edward (1625-63).

DUTCH, 1629
An Unknown Boy with a Bird
Panel
Said to be a child of the Winter Queen of Bohemia. If so, Prince Edward (1625-63).


JOSEPH ALLEN (1769-1839) after ? ADRIAEN VAN CRONENBURGH (1520/5-1604), 1568
Catherine of Berain (1534/5-91)
Granddaughter of an illegitimate son of Henry VII, painted as the wife of Sir Richard Clough, an immensely rich merchant and partner of Sir Thomas Gresham, builder of the first house at Osterley (also NT). The original is in the National
Museum of Wales, Cardiff. -

MARCUS GHEERAERTS the Younger (1561/2-1635)
An Unknown Man (b.1592/3)
Panel
Inscribed: Aetatis Suae 35. /Anno Do. 1628 and (under a vetch) Humilior Melior
Might Melior be a pun on Melier, and this be an early member of that family?

After DAVID TENIERS the Younger (1610-90)
A Gardener and his Wife
Panel
BRITISH, 0.1630?
An Unknown Man, known as 'Lord Arundel' Possibly a later pastiche.

MODELS

The models were made by Elizabeth Ratcliffe (c.1735—c.181o), daughter of a Chester clockmaker and known to the Yorkes as 'Betty the little'. She
was lady's maid and companion to Mrs Dorothy Yorke, mother of Philip Yorke I. The Yorkes, recognising their protegee's talent, paid for her education and encouraged her artistic development.

The Chinese Pagoda

The pagoda was made in 1767 and is based on an engraving of 'The Great Pagoda as first intended' in William Chambers's Gardens and Buildings at Kew (1763). Betty Ratcliffe adapted the design, however, altering the scale from ten to six storeys and elaborating the details, particularly of the varied fretwork rails surrounding each storey. She also added the small bells, which were not a feature of Chambers's design.
The model has a wooden base but most of it is constructed of vellum, to which crushed mica, slivers of mother-of-pearl, and fragments of coloured glass are glued. The carved and painted wooden stand on which the model sits is an outstanding piece of chinoiserie furniture, possibly made by John Linnell (d.1796) of Berkeley Square, London. lt retains the original green, white and silvered colouring.

The Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra

The Ruins were made in 1773 and also have an architectural publication as their source: Robert Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra (1753). No particular. view was copied and Betty Ratcliffe adapted the Neo-classical design, treating her source material in a rather arbitrary and romantic manner: for example, she added the delicately trailing vegetation. Like the Chinese Pagoda, the Ruins are constructed of mother-of-pearl, mica and glass fragments.
The carved gilt and glazed case, also in a Neoclassical style, was probably supplied by Thomas Fentham, carver, gilder and picture-frame maker of The Strand, London. The design of the frieze is almost identical to that which appears on a frame supplied by Fentham in the 177os for the portrait of Simon and Etheldred Yorke (now in the Chinese Room). A payment of £15 12s 6d to him in 1775 may have been for the case.
The smaller model of an exotic bird perched among flowers was also made of mother-of-pearl and other materials. Like the larger modeln, it was made by Betty Ratcliffe at the Yorkes' London house in Park Lane, and on the death of Dorothy Yorke in 1787, it survived the perilous journey to Erddig.

FURNITURE
The appearance of the Gallery would originally have been much less cluttered. During the eighteenth-century refashioning of the ground-floor rooms and the removal of items from the Yorkes' London house, more furniture was placed here.
The seven walnut chairs are mentioned in the 1726 inventory. Four of them came from John Meller's Saloon and were originally covered in caffoy — a cut-wool velvet of brilliant yellow and deep crimson. They were much admired by the antiquarian John Loveday in 1732. The covers were altered in Victorian times when caffoy pelmets were introduced for the windows at either end of the room.

FLANKING DOOR TO NORTH LANDING:

The semicircular carved and gilt pier-tables were probably made by Thomas Fentham, c.1778, as the decoration is identical to that found on the stand for the model of the Ruins of Palmyra. The tops made by Betty Ratcliffe in 1778 consist of small fragments of mother-of-pearl arranged to depict Chinese landscapes surrounded by a rococo floral border.

ON LEFT:

An eighteenth-century black japanned Bureau cabinet bearing the stamp `R.F.' and identical in form to the scarletjapanned cabinet in the State Bedroom. Both may have been supplied to Meller by Belchier in the 1720s. The mirrored door panels have been removed and the inner japanned panels reversed.
The Morocco leather-bound travelling trunk came to Erddig in 1770 as the linen-press of Elizabeth Yorke, according to Louisa Yorke's Facts and Fancies.

AT FAR RIGHT END OF GALLERY:

The James II walnut day-bed and three stools were said by Louisa Yorke to have come from the Yorkes' Park Lane house although Meller's 1726 inventory records a large quantity of caned furniture in the Gallery. The bed and largest stool once had caffoy loose covers. The two windows were also hung with caffoy pelmets in the early twentieth century but these are now too fragile to be shown.

MISCELLANEOUS

The sedan chair was, according to Louisa Yorke, used by Margaret Yorke, wife of Simon II:
She would get into the Sedan Chair in the Lower Hall ... the footman would carry their mistress, well tucked in with all the windows shut and the curtains drawn (air was not appreciated in her day!) and the door would not be opened until she arrived at her destination, inside the house of her friend.
The chair was rediscovered in an outhouse in 1903 and restored by Edward Davies of Chester.
The mid-eighteenth-century mahogany-framed exercise stool, known as a chamber horse, was used to simulate horse-riding. According to Louisa Yorke, it was given by a member of the family and delivered by canal to Chester.
The Victorian beechwood double rocking chair, known as a nursery yacht, has caned seats and a carpeted base. It was made in Colwyn Bay by John Hughes.
The Bagatelle board is Regency and was made by F. C. Lynn of Liverpool. It retains its original cues, balls, brass pegs and hoops and score sheets.

DOCUMENTS

The vellum Elizabethan charter is a land grant: in 1580 the Erddig township was granted to Dr John Yale, great-uncle of Elihu Yale, the neighbour of Joshua Edisbury at Plas Grono.
The parchment lists the names of all the sheriffs in Denbighshire.


THE NORTH LANDING

The landing for the main staircase of the house with the most important bedchambers leading from it.

PICTURES

JOSEPH ALLEN (1769-1839)
Diana Wynne, Mrs Philip Yorke (d.r8o5) as a Widow Daughter and heiress of Piers Wynne of Dyffryn Aled, she married Philip Yorke I, as his second wife, in 1782. A somewhat improvident, scatter-brained, but amiable woman.

JOSEPH ALLEN (1769-1839)
? Piers WynneYorke (1784-1837) as a Boy
Probably the first son of Philip Yorke I and his second wife, Diana Wynne of Dyffryn Aled.

FRANCIS WHEATLEY (1747-1801)
Sir Barnard Turner (1736-84)
Signed and dated 1783
Louisa Yorke, mother of Simon IV and Philip III, was a descendant of Sir Barnard, who was MP for Suffolk and Sheriff of the City of London. The sword he holds is supposed to be that in the case below, although the hilt is quite different.

FURNITURE

The curiously ugly nineteenth-century pier-tables, with shaped tops covered in crimson velvet and with turned and foliated legs, were constructed from curtain poles, probably supplied by Gillows in the 182os and adapted later in the century. Louisa Yorke records that until 1902, when she put them here, they were covered in muslin draperies and used in some of the bedrooms.

CLOCK

The early eighteenth-century longcase clock with arched dial is signed Ratcliffe, Chester'. Thejapanned case with domed hood and carved flambeaux finials was probably made in London. John Ratcliffe was father of Betty Ratcliffe.

BELLS

The hand bells, of which there were originally eight in the set, were given to Louisa Yorke by her uncle Edward Scott in 1885. She used them to teach the bell ringers of Marksbury to ring changes and tunes.
METALWORK
The English small sword of 1760-1, the silver hilt bearing the mark of John Rowe, was presented by the Duke of York to Barnard Turner in 1761.


THE STATE BEDROOM

Following Philip Yorke I's marriage to Elizabeth Cust in 1770, the State Bed, previously in the Best Bedchamber (now the Dining Room), was moved to the first floor, as it was no longer fashionable to have bedrooms on the ground floor. The room was redecorated with a hand-painted Chinese wallpaper depicting flowering trees and shrubs with a profusion of birds, butterflies and small insects, set against a rich green-blue background. The chimneypiece, probably by John Devall, was introduced at the same period.
Subsidence, due to coal-mining, caused extensive damage to the structure of the house and by 1968 rainwater poured through the ceiling of this room. This affected the furniture, particularly the State Bed and the wallpaper, which was peeling off in
many places. When the National Trust took over in the 197os, the wallpaper was carefully removed and conserved. It was rehung in 1977.

STATE BED

The State Bed is a rare surviving example of a lit a la duchesse, a style of bed introduced at the end of the seventeenth century by the Anglo-Dutch architect Daniel Marot (1661-1752), who came to England in the service of William of Orange. The tester (canopy) extends the entire length of the bed and is suspended on chains from the ceiling, rather than being supported by foot posts.
On 17 April 1720 Simon Yorke I reported to John Meller that he had called on `Mr Hurt ... to press his sending ye bed he is making on Monday next'. The craftsman's wife informed him that 'ye bed as to their worke hath been finished, but ye gilding and carving is not ready'. Mr Hurt was probably John Hutt, a cabinetmaker in St Paul's Churchyard, London. The carved and gilded ornament is so dose to that found on the glasses supplied by Belchier that he was probably responsible for some elements of the embellishments.
The bed-hangings, including the cornice, valances and the counterpane, are made of a number of different pieces of embroidered silk, which in many areas are fixed with glue directly on to the oak structure. The silk is embroidered in the Chinese manner known as 'Indian needlework' and was originally a shimmering white with brilliant, almost gaudy, coloured embroidery. Such fabrics were imported to England in the early eighteenth century by the East India Company: Meller may have bought them directly from London or alternatively acquired them from his neighbour Elihu Yale of Plas Grono, who until 1699 traded for the Company. Louisa Yorke recorded in 1923 that the bedhangings were repaired by Walford & Spokes of Oxford about 1900, using fabric from the window curtains; again in 1906 worn pieces were copied by the Ladies Needlework Guild.
The underside of the tester is decorated with a flock of birds and in the centre hovers a large embroidered peacock, set against a gilded strapwork background. Two other peacocks occupy the corners at the foot of the bed. Each bird is cut from a piece of embroidered silk and mounted on to a shaped wooden block. The curved headboard is also elaborately decorated with a carved cartouche containing a peacock at the top, and at the base with two gilded hawks' heads, which are probably the work of Belchier.
By 1968 the bed was in a severe state of deterioration: Philip Yorke III allowed it to be removed to the Victoria & Albert Museum, where it was painstakingly conserved over two years. The Museum generously agreed to its return in 1977, but insisted on the glass screen to protect it.

OTHER FURNITURE
ON RIGHT:

The English scarlet japanned bureau cabinet was probably bought from Belchier by Meller in the 172os. It bears a stamp `R.F.', similar to that found on the
black japanned cabinet of identical form in the Gallery. The cabinet was listed as being in the `Blew Mohair Room' in the 1726 inventory. It was moved here from the Gallery in the 197os. Despite the light damage to the exterior, when opened, it reveals the spectacularly bright original colouring.
The exceptionally rare English green japanned sidechairs and two oval stools were acquired by 1726, probably from Belchier. They are listed in the inventory for that year as being in the Best Bedchamber and as having gold stuff covers. These would have been slip covers made of the same embroidered silk as the bed. Although these no longer exist, the original undercovers of bluegreen worsted, are a rare survival. The material is impressed with an overall pattern of sinuous lines. The chairs appear to have been well used by the Yorkes. By 1906 Louisa Yorke recorded that they had become very shabby and so were sent for repair to Edward Davies in Chester. Two had been placed in the Blue Bedroom and painted brown to complement the panelling there; a third, also painted, had been upholstered with embroidery worked by Victoria Yorke and placed in the Chapel. The two from the Blue Bedroom were restored in 1907 and returned to the State Bedroom. However, the third remains in the Chapel.

TO LEFT OF BED:

The Coromandel lacquered screen is Chinese. It is one of the few pieces at Erddig thought to have belonged to Joshua Edisbury. lt is described in a letter of 1682 from Elihu Yale, who was then Governor of Fort St George in India, as a 'Japan Skreen', which he intended to send on the 'Bengali Merchant' ship as a gift for Edisbury's wife. In a postscript Yale advised Edisbury that %ince the foregoing 'tis my misfortune not to prevail with the captain to carry the skreenes, his ship being full already, so pray excuse me 'til next yeare'. Louisa Yorke recorded that the screen was used for mang years in the Dining Room. It was placed here in 1902 and was repaired by Edward Davies two years later.
Its six panels depict a continuous design: on one side travellers, hunters and soldiers in a mountainous landscape; and on the other a scene of exotic birds and waterfowl set in a mountainous riverscape.
The three eighteenth-century pier-glasses may be the work of John Belchier.
The pair of black japanned chests decorated with chinoiserie motifs and on wooden stands is eighteenth-century.

FLOWER PIECES AND EMBROIDERIES

The arrangement offiowers, made of silk, paper, wire and wool mounted on a silk background, was created by Betty Ratcliffe in 1775. The carved oval frame was probably supplied by Fentham. It is likely that he also supplied frames for the three flower embroideries of about 1773, also made by her.
The two modern silk flower arrangements were made by Lucy Askew in 1986.




THE BLUE BEDROOM

During the late eighteenth-century reorganisation of the house by Philip Yorke I and his wife Elizabeth, this room was rearranged to accommodate the bed from the Second Best Bedchamber (now the Tapestry Room) on the ground floor.

PICTURES

THOMAS FRYE (1710-62)
Part of two sets of mezzotints, published in 1760 and 1761-2. Although the man holding a drawing implement is thought to be Frye himself, the others were probably not intended to be straightforward portraits, but were exercises in dramatic poses, with Frye's artist and actor friends as models.

FURNITURE

The early eighteenth-century bed is a lit ä la duchesse type, similar to, but less opulent than, the State Bed. In the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century it was reupholstered in blue silk and wool damask, although traces of the original crimson damask have been found adhering to the top of the tester.

BETWEEN WINDOWS:

The early eighteenth-century giltwood pier-glass was made by Belchier c.1720. A section of the embellishment at the bottom of the frame is now lost.

BELOW:

The mahogany chest-of-drawers with boldly gadrooned top and carved bracket feet may have been supplied by John Cobb in 1770.

ON LEFT:

A late Georgian mahogany clothes press. The mahogany dressing glass on it is c. 1830.

RIGHT OF BED:

The washstand is Victorian.

TEXTILES

The carpet is English, c. 1900.



THE INNER HALL
(NORTH)

At the bottom of the main stairs and those leading to the lower ground floor, the walls are covered with a series of illuminated addresses presented to members of the Yorke family. These include one to Philip Yorke II from the management, colliers and workmen of the Bryn-yr-Owen colliery on his comingof-age in 1870. Another from the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the town of Wrexham was given on his second marriage in 1902. Another to Simon Yorke IV was presented by the tenants of the Erddig estate on his coming-of-age in 1924.



THE FAILURES GALLERY
Used as the entrance to the Chapel by the servants attending daily prayers, the Yorkes named this the Failures Gallery because of the various gifts and objects displayed here, which for one reason or another were not considered worthy of show elsewhere in the house.

PICTURES

The range of small oils, watercolours and prints includes a portrait of Philip Yorke II as Mayor of Wrexham in 1897.

FURNITURE

The carved oak hall seat, settle and side-table are all nineteenth-century and are traditionally associated with General John Yorke, brother of Simon Yorke III, who lived at Plas Newydd, Llangollen .

CLOCK

The George III longcase clock has a brass and silvered dial signed `Jno. Ratcliffe, Wrexham'.

STATUETTES

A selection of Parian ware, alabaster and plaster casts, including the figures of Venus, Hebe, Bacchus and Ariadne together with copies of Thorwaldson sculpture bought by the Yorkes in Copenhagen.



THE CHAPEL

The Chapel occupies the far end of the north wing added by Meller in the 1720s. In 1732 Loveday noted, 'The Chappel is not quite finished ye pews &c. of Oak'.
The present arrangement reflects the Chapel's appearance during the early twentieth century. The stencilled lilies date from an earlier Victorian scheme, and the surrounding pattern is comprised of wallpaper borders from about 1907-9. The family pew on the right was entered via the Chinese Room. Servants sat in the pews to the left. The metal ceiling was added as a fire precaution in 1908.

STAINED GLASS

Two windows, incorporating fragments of fifteenthcentury French glass, were brought in 1909 from Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, home of the Yorkes' kinsmen, the Earls of Hardwicke. The third window is eighteenth-century by William Price.

FRIEZE

The biblical text running just below the ceiling was cut out by Philip Yorke II in 1909 with the assistance of his elder son, and was put up in celebration of his two sonn' births — Simon in 1903 and Philip in 1905. Both children were baptised here, though today the Chapel is unconsecrated.

PICTURES

After CARLO MARATTA (1625-1713)
Madonna and Child with Angels
A variant copy of Maratta's Nativity in the Dresden Gallery.

ALTARPIECE:

BRITISH, eighteenth-century
Madonna and Child
Somewhat reminiscent of the studies of Madonnas, and Mothers and Children, that Benjamin West and Richard Cosway did c.1760-7o.
After GUIDO RENI (1575-1642)
Adoration of the Shepherds
Poor, probably English, copy of the octagonal picture in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. It reverses the original, and so was probably painted from an engraving.
FLEMISH, early seventeenth-century Madonna and Child in a Landscape Copper

FURNISHINGS

The carved oak reredos of 1663 is surmounted by a Victorian carved border bought at a sale in 1909. The altar cloth was embroidered in 1855 by the Hon. Elizabeth Cust and her sister Lucy, aunts of Victoria Yorke (nee Cust). The red plush cushions are early nineteenth-century. The palms of 5892 and 1898 were given to Simon and Victoria Yorke.
The plain crucfix was made by William Gittins, the estate carpenter, 0.1898.
The white marble statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception was given to Simon and Victoria Yorke in 1846 as a wedding present by Simon's brother-in-law, Charles Birch Reynardson, and placed in the Chapel in 1914.
The oak lectern was carved by John Davies of Wrexham in 1858.
The Gothic carved oak prayer desk was bought by Philip Yorke II in 1895 from the sale of Leasowe Castle, Cheshire, the home of his grandfather, Sir Edward Cust.
The hatchment to Simon Yorke II (d.1834) was set up here in 1836.

ORGAN

The American organ and the organ case are entirely independent of one another. According to Louisa Yorke, the organ, made by W. Bell & Co. of Guelph, Ontario, was given by Victoria Yorke and her son Philip to Esclusham church in 1880. In 1895 it was removed to the Chapel when the church acquired a larger pipe organ. The case, surmounted by an elaborate broken cornice, was, according to the same source, acquired in 1913 from the church at Worthenbury, south-east of Wrexham.

PICTURE

ON LEFT-HAND WALL OUTSIDE TRIBES ROOM:

THOMAS BADESLADE (C.I715-50)
The Garden and Park at Erddig in 1739
Pencil
Engraved by W. H. Toms and published the same year. It clearly illustrates the formal planting and canal an the east front and the rides through the park to the north. The house is shown with its original cupola, forecourt gates and screens, all now lost.



THE TRIBES ROOM

This room is named after Philip Yorke I's book The Royal Tribes of Wales (1799). The walls are decorated with the coats of arms of the noble Welsh families illustrated in it.

OVER FIREPLACE:
A panel incorporating the arms of the Yorkes, together with those of families into which they married: Hutton, Cust, Wynne, Holland, Cust, Puleston and Scott. The eighth panel was left blank, as both Simon IV and Philip III were bachelors.

FLANKING FIREPLACE:
The pair of glass armorial panels depicts the arms of
Meller (17,3) and Yorke (1771).
In the eighteenth century the room was used as a billiard-room, although it also appears to have provided a secondary access out to the wert front. By the nineteenth century it was used as an entrance, when the draughty ground-floor Entrance Hall became rather more of a music room.

FURNITURE
The six Georgian walnot hall-chairs with waisted backs are decorated with the Yorke crest.

SCULPTURE
CHRISTOPHER MOORE (1790-1863)
Sir Charles Cust
Plaster; dated 1832
In the early twentieth century it was in the Library.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The mid-nineteenth-century harmonium in a rosewood case is attributed to H. Christophe & Etienne.



THE GARDEN MUSEUM
The Museum houses a small exhibition about the history and the evolution of the garden at Erddig and a selection of garden implements.

TOOLS

A late nineteenth-century potato grading fork and a carved garden fork.
A metal leaf sweeper made in Pennsylvania and a stone and wrought-iron garden roller.
An early twentieth-century lawn edger.
A wooden strickle, used for sharpening scythes.
A wood and fron fruit gatherer and a wood and metal currant picker.
A pair of terracotta forcing or blanching pots and a selection of other terracotta plant pots.
Two glass propagation bells and two cast-iron lantern cloches.
A series of zinc and tin plant labels, including those for varieties of plums, pears, apples and greengages grown as espaliers along the garden walls.
The canal in the garden was regularly used by the Yorkes for boating and skating. The model boats and barge are late nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury. The leatlier boots with ice Skates screwed into the soles are Edwardian.



THE FAMILY MUSEUM
This contains a miscellany of ethnographic and natural history specimens collected by the Yorkes: shells; a hornets' nest; skulls; rocks and spears. All are jumbled together in a display case which was probably made by one of the Erddig joiners.

Miles on this day: 7

18°C - raining, later cloudy