3-017-312 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Brocket Hall, Hatfield, Herts, where Lord Palmerston died, 1865. 'Brocket Hall...was built about the middle of the last century for Sir Matthew Lamb, father of the first Viscount Melbourne, and grandfather of Lady Palmerston and of the late Lord Melbourne. It occupies the site of an old manor-house, formerly belonging to the family of the Brockets, from whom the place takes its name...The park and grounds are spacious and very pleasant - one of their best features being supplied by a spacious sheet of water, an artificial expansion of the River Lea, which is crossed by a handsome bridge. The mansion, of which Mr. James Paine was the architect, has a solid and dignified aspect, but its internal apartments, especially the grand ballroom, are finely proportioned and decorated with great splendour...Queen Victoria honoured the late Lord Melbourne with a visit at this noble mansion in the early years of her reign, when he was at the head of the Whig Administration; and here Lord Melbourne himself died, in 1848, leaving the place, with his other estates at Melbourne, in Leicestershire, and elsewhere, to his sister, Lady Palmerston'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.