THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 13. | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1840. | Volume I. |
HOLLYBROOK HALL, COUNTY OF WICKLOW.
Among the very many beautiful residences of our nobility andgentry, situated within a drive of an hour or two of our metropolis,there is probably not one better worthy of a visit thanthat which we have chosen to depict as the illustration of ourpresent number—Hollybrook Hall, the seat of Sir GeorgeFrederick John Hodson, Bart. It is situated in the countyof Wicklow, about a mile beyond the town of Bray, and abouteleven miles from Dublin.
To direct public attention to this charming spot is no lessour pleasure than our duty, for we feel quite assured thateven among the higher classes of our fellow-citizens but a veryfew know more respecting it than its name and locality, andthat it will surprise the vast majority to be told that HollybrookHall is no less remarkable for the beauty of the sylvanscenery by which it is surrounded, than as affording in itself themost perfect specimen of the Tudor style of architecture tobe found in Ireland.
That Hollybrook is thus little known to the public, is not,however, their fault: excluded from the eye by high and unsightlystone walls on every side by which it might otherwisebe seen by the traveller, it is passed without even a glimpseof the bower of beauty, which would attract his attention andexcite the desire to obtain a more intimate acquaintance withobjects of such interest by a request to its accomplishedowner, which we are satisfied would never be denied.
Hollybrook Hall, like Clontarf Castle, of which we havealready given some account, is a fine specimen of the manyrecently erected or rebuilt residences of our nobility and gentry,which we esteem it our duty to notice and to praise.Like that fine structure also, it is an architectural creation ofthat accomplished artist to whose exquisite taste and correctjudgment we are indebted for so many of the most beautifulbuildings in the kingdom; and in many of its features andthe general arrangement of its parts, it bears a considerableresemblance to that admirably composed edifice. In itsground plan and general outline, however, it is essentiallydifferent; and it is, moreover, characterised by a peculiaritywhich perhaps no other of Mr Morrison’s works exhibits,namely, that it has no mixed character of style, but isin every respect an example of English domestic architecturein the style of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, or, in otherwords, it uniformly preserves through all its details the characterof the Tudor style.
In the choice of this style, as well as in the general compositionof the structure, the artist was obviously guided by a judiciousdesire to adapt the building to the peculiar character ofthe scenery by which it is surrounded, and the historicalassociations connected with the locality; and a more happyresult than that which he has effected could hardly be imagined.Seated upon a green and sunny terraced bank in the[Pg 98]midst of venerable yew and other evergreens, and immediatelyabove a small artificial lake or pond, which reflects onits surface the dark masses of ancient and magnificent foresttrees, which rise on all sides from its banks, and which areonly topped by the peaked summits of the greater and lesserSugar-Loaf Mountains, as seen through vistas, the buildingan