Lytes Cary Manor House

Yesterday afternoon we visited Lytes Cary Manor House, which is about a 15 minute drive from our apartment. The oldest remaining part of the house was built in 1343 by Peter le Lyt, but the land had been owned by the Lyt/Lyte family since the 1200's. The Lyte family lived in the house from the 1300's to the 1700's, when they had to sell it because of financial difficulties. My family will be interested to know that the Lyte family is in the family tree (way, way, way far back!) of Isabelle Stanford on her father's side.

There were several interesting people in the Lyte family. One, Henry Lyte,who lived in the 1500's, wrote an English translation of a book, including his own comments, that was a reference book on herbal medicines and was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I. He presented the book, known as Lyte's Herbal, to the queen at St. Paul's Cathedral on the day that she went to give thanks for the country's deliverance from the Spanish Armada. The book was the standard reference on herbal medicines for several hundred years and is even quoted by Shakespeare in the Apothecary's scene in Romeo and Juliet. (I haven't looked that up yet.) I also read that there is a high probability that some of the more educated Pilgrims were very familiar with the information from the book. There is a copy of Lyte's Herbal inside the manor house, and I think the original is in the British Museum.

We were not able to take photos inside the house, but we did take some inside the chapel, which is the oldest part of the house. The first photo shows the outside of the chapel(on the left), which is connected to the house.

The stained glass window showing Mary and Jesus was added in 1912, but it includes some medieval glass said to have come from a church which William Le Lyte had commissioned before his death in 1316.
The next photo is a small part of a border that went around the top of the chapel walls. The border was put there to display the Lyte coat of arms and those of their relatives. The one in the picture is of Sir Anthony Ashley,Baron, the son of one of the Lyte daughters. (He is in our family tree--again, way, way far back.)

The following photos are outside the house. The first two are of the front lawn.


Next is the side of the house with a croquet game set up on the lawn.
The following two photos show the back of the house.