Page:Views in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northamptonshire.djvu/71

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DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY, &c.
41

TROSTON HALL.

This seat is the neat retirement of Capel Lofft, Esq., to whom the Public are in a great measure indebted for their knowledge of the Farmer's Boy. The proprietor has been at considerable pains to make every appendage consistent with his own peculiar taste; to this end he has inscribed almost every tree in his garden and its vicinity to names of classic celebrity, such as Homer, Demosthenes, Cicero, Milton, Cowley, and many others: the large elm in the foreground of the View is called the Evelyn Elm, in memory of the antiquary and planter of that name. And to commemorate a visit to Troston Hall by the celebrated philanthropist Howard, in the year 1786, a Laurel was planted which now bears his name. Two horsechesnut trees and two oaks were planted here by R. Bloomfield in January 1805, which are carefully reared.

This estate was purchased by Robert Maddockes, Esq., in the year 1680, from whose family it came to its present possessor, by whom a very remarkable anecdote is related of the father of this Robert Maddockes, which exhibits a singular instance of the fluctuations of family greatness. He is said