Ightham Mote

2 IGHTHAM MOTE. representing the general features and arrangements of a quadrangular building. The members of this Society are probably also more or less acquainted with the description of the house by Major-General C. E. Luard, published in The Builder for 15th July, 1893, and reprinted in pamphlet form. Several of the problems discussed by him with much ability I have not entered upon here, and my Paper must, therefore, to a certain extent, be also considered as supplementary to his work. The buildings and re-buildings having been so very numerous and complicated, I have thought it well to make no attempt to discriminate them on the plans by a variety of shading. The delightful gardens and romantic surroundings of Ightham Mote have often been described. The place is indeed a picture and a poem ; but it is foreign to my present undertaking to deal with matters of this kind, and for the same reason little or no detail is given in these pages as to the history of the families who have, for so many centuries, lived here in succession. I must therefore refer those who desire information on these subjects to the various County Histories, and to the papers by Major-General Luard, the Rev. C. E. Woodruff, and Mr. J. Oldrid Scott, and to the accompanying pedigree of the Selby family, compiled by Mr. T. 0. Colyer-Eergusson. Suffice it here to say that the house stands in charming grounds and amid venerable trees, near the bottom of a well-wooded valley in a secluded position, about 25 miles in a southeasterly direction from London, and 6 miles north of the town of Tonbridge. Before proceeding to describe the house itself, in