Sir Francis Knollys found some of the priest holes and a small fortune in gold plate in , but the priests had gone. The secret chapel up in the rafters of the court still remains today, as well as traces of an escape tunnel leading into the woods. In , Francis Perkins married Arabella Fermour , a well known society figure. She was the daughter of Henry Fermor Esq. The fame of her beauty and her charms, as celebrated both by poets and painters, has come down to posterity, for she was the belle of London society in the early years of the 18th century.
From town fair Arabella flies; The beaux, unpowdered, grieve; The rivers play before her eyes, The breezes softly breathing rise, The spring begins to live….
The poem was inspired by a London scandal when Lord Petre, a young man of twenty, cut off and stole a lock of her hair without her knowledge. She was very angry and a serious quarrel took place between the two families.
The poem was in every way suited for its purpose. Unfortunately, however, Pope, was not personally acquainted with Mistress Arabella and he published his work without asking her leave.
Moreover, he appended to it a motto, which was taken by her friends to imply that she had asked him to compose the poem. Instead of mending matters, he, therefore, only made them worse, drawing another quarrel upon himself. In consequence, Pope was obliged to bring out another edition, suppressing the objectionable motto and prefixing a propitiatory letter of dedication instead.
It will be vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece since I dedicate it to you…. If it had as many graces as there are in your Person or in your Mind; yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done. Francis Perkins and Arabella were actually 9th cousins, but it is unlikely that they were aware of the relationship.
For the wedding, Pope wrote her an almost affectionate letter. There is a tradition that it was for Arabella Fermor that Ufton Court was refashioned and enlarged. Certainly one half of the frontage was, prior to further alterations made in , of the style popular at the time of her marriage.
Parts of the interior, also, were modernized; the hall and dining-room, while retaining their Elizabethan ceilings, were entirely re-panelled, and the style would fix this alteration also to early in the eighteenth century.
Various tenants lived in the house over the next years. The most notable were Mary Sharp , whose detailed history of the house provides us with much valuable information, and Mr and Mrs Harry Benyon. But for Catholics this is a place with a special resonance as it has no fewer than four priest-hides or priest holes , plus a private oratory. The family that lived here throughout the Reformation period was a Catholic family. The whole of this area of England has a number of Catholic strongholds -- not so far away is Stonor, where Saint Edmund Campion had his secret printing-press.
Ufton Court was used for Mass, celebrated in its oratory. The design of the house is such that someone keeping watch in a room over the front porch would be able to see anyone approaching even while they were some distance away.
A priest could be quickly bundled into one of the hides -- which interconnect with a series of passages -- while the house was cleared of any evidence of Mass and the crowd dispersed into various harmless activities around the extended household. The priest-hides are well-designed and effective. Why did a house need hiding places for priests? What changed things was a policy of the Jesuits and other English priests living in exile: determined to win back England to the Catholic Faith, missionaries were send to England to preach, teach, hear confessions and celebrate Mass.
Eventually, a law was passed making it an act of treason to be ordained abroad and then return to England as a Catholic priest. This meant that simply to be a Catholic priest -- simply to be alive, and in England, and have some evidence of identity of Catholic priesthood -- meant the death penalty.
And it was a horrible death: partly throttled by hanging, a man would be cut down and butchered while alive. After the Reformation of the Church, they carried on worshipping God in the Catholic way in secret. So the house acquired secret priest holes hiding places. She was escaping London gossip after a suitor stole a lock of her hair and caused a big scandal!
Alexander Pope wrote a poem about it. Page and Ditchfield eds. Betjeman, J and Piper, J eds. Pevsner, N. Allen, J R L. Wortley, M. Historic England previously English Heritage. Tiller, K ed. Peter Scott and Partners. Colvin, H. Robertson, J G ed. Berkshire Archaeological Society.
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