d the
house, and legend says that he tried to add such height and such an
amount of granite to it that Risdon writes, "The very foundations were
ready to reel under the burthen." The house lies in a lovely wooded
valley on the banks of the River Lyd, and it has four separate
entrances, each opening on to a court or garden. Access to the
front-entrance--commonly called the Green Court--is through a fine iron
gateway, and above the central door are the Wise arms. Most of the
windows have eight rounded granite mullions and small leaded panes of
glass, and in some the original glass still remains. Two windows in the
front are of Charles I.'s date, and have quaint fan-shaped lights. Over
the large granite open fireplace in the front-hall is the date 1656,
when the house underwent repair after damage, caused, it is said, in the
Civil Wars. There is a story repeated in many histories of Devon, and
told by Lysons amongst others, that Sydenham was taken in 1644 by
Colonel Holborne; but I have every reason to believe that the Sydenham
garrisoned and taken was Combe Sydenham, in the parish of Stogumber,
near Taunton, but the fact that within the last forty years a sword and
other weapons, also seventeenth-century horseshoes, have been found may
be taken as a proof that fighting of some sort did take place.

'In making alterations in the kitchen chimney some twenty years ago, a
little hiding-place, or priest's room, was found opening out of it, and
in it was an oak table and the remains of a chair; and since then large
and small unsuspected rooms have been discovered, and it has been said
that in the largest a troop could lie hidden--as indeed it could with
ease. Quite recently a secret passage leading from the house towards the
river has been found, bearing out the legend always handed down, "that
the Lady Wise of the day escaped with a large party by a secret passage
near the river, and got into the woods undetected by the soldiers who
were round the house." It is very probable that the secret rooms
mentioned and the passage communicated.

'There is fine oak panelling in most of the rooms, and in the
dining-room the panelling is inlaid in a delicate design with an
ivory-like substance. Secret passages exist to this day in the walls,
which are of immense thickness, in some places being seven feet in
depth. There are three oak staircases, the main one being finely carved
with figures standing at the angles, and another having very