2105.—East Basham, Norfolkdetails

Near Walsingham. “It is a curious and instructive contrast to compare with Herstmonceaux – a true Castle, but in which the domestic mansion was beginning to show itself – with East Basham Hall in Norfolk (Fig. 2105), which forms a true and most beautiful mansion, but in which the traces of old castellated architecture are everywhere conspicuous. It appears from the dates of the erection of the two piles, that it took nearly a century to complete the transformation. And truly significant, in its stately elegance, is Basham Hall, of the more peacable days that must have dawned for England before any one would have erected a pile so utterly defenceless against warlike attacks. It is supposed to have been completed in 1540. This is also a ruin.” [p. 231]