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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2002-08 > 1028230939


From: "Colleen" <>
Subject: Re: Courvoisier/Corsellis & Layer Marney
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 20:42:24 +0100
References: <001b01c238a3$7c2bdfb0$eb9a7ad5@IanH> <RnhTkKAaBXS9EwNG@feather1.demon.co.uk>


The Corsellis family were dead rich, Fred, they owned the exquisite Layer
Marney Tower, lucky them, one of the finest Renaissance buildings in
England, from about the mid 17th to the mid 19th century - bits of Wivenhoe
too. Nicholas Corsellis, the man who first bought this stunning Renaissance
building for £7,200 in 1667 (!) has a brass in the church. He made his pile
as a London merchant selling tobacco, indigo and lead. Nicholas's memorial
in the church says that Corsellis, a Fleming, was paid to teach the
printer's art to Englishman by Henry VI, if that's so, the Corsellis family
printed books in England before Caxton.

Any lister within reach of this wonderful Italianate building, do visit, I
promise it will make your day. As the guide book says 'No one will ever
forget their first view of Layer Marney Tower.' It has the most wonderful
terracotta and blue diaper work and romantic spiral chimneys - which
Italians reputedly taught our English craftsmen to construct. The gorgeous
gardens are stuffed with ancient plants and gargoyles, rare old breeds of
cow graze on the lawn - all in all it's such a dreamy, idyllic place that,
were Elizabeth 1st and the Earl of Essex to step out on the lawn and dance a
madrigal, or whatever, you wouldn't bat an eyelid.

Up a winding, stone stairway past some very spooky nooks and crannies and
half way up the tower is a history room, full of ancient family trees and
armorial shields. There's a long hall, minstrels gallery, all newly
decorated with white lilies and cow parsley, and the room where Geoffrey
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was partly filmed - so much to drool over, the
list is endless. Best of all, at the top of the tower you push open a heavy,
ancient, oak door which groans resistance at you...and the view is
breathtaking. You're standing among those chimneys and gargoyles, next to a
small observatory, right at the top of the tower - no guide rails or
anything like that here, nothing between you and the sheer drop below - as
you stroke the terracotta work and gaze over the top of the English oaks,
the lovely church of St Mary The Virgin and the dreamy Essex countryside are
spread out below you like a glorious medieval tapestry. Just time to creep
surreptitiously up the private lane to the church, with your cousin whinging
'doooooon't think we should be up here', then run for your life as the sheep
dogs slink out at you and chase you back to your car. Absolute heaven.
Please go and see it everyone, before some teenaged apparatchik vandal sites
something like a runway and air terminal next door. Colleen


----- Original Message from Fred feather
>
> PS - Ian, if your readers include the lister who was interested in the
> name CORSELLIS I have today seen the list for the Grand Jury at the
> Essex Lent Assize at Chelmsford of which Matthews (sic) Corsellis was a
> member. No other details but must have been someone of great standing in
the
> county at the time. Pardon me for violating you air space.


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