LITTLE GADESDEN is a beautiful and romantic village, encompassed by the county of Buckingham, except by a small track of land, which connects it with Hertfordshire. It belonged, like the rest of the towns and villages in the vicinity, to the earl of Mortaigne, and was granted, with other domains, by Richard earl of Cornwall, and king of the Romans, to his college at Esserugge, as is more fully stated in Hemel Hemsted and Berkhamsted.

The manors were named Gadesden Parva, Ashridge, Frittsden, and Lucys. The three first were in the crown from the dissolution of the college, till queen Elizabeth granted them altogether to lord and lady Cheney; and ultimately by James I. to lord chancellor Ellesmere, who had also Lucys included, being conveyed to him from lord Dormer, who had his title from the earl of Essex.

ASHRIDGE, ABBEY, though accidentally situated in the parish of Pitston, in Bucks, we shall describe in the county of Herts, as being partly in the parish of Gadesden, in the church of which are deposited the remains of most of the noble family of Egerton.

"The house of Bonehomes, called Assecherugge," says Leland, Vol. I. p. 121, "of the foundation of Edmund, earl of Cornwall, is a mile off Berkhamsted, and there the king lodged." Norden described Ashridge as a royal palace, "wherin our most worthy and ever famous Q. Elizabeth lodged as in her owne, being then a more statelie house, at the time of Wyatt's attempte in Q. Maryes dayes." In 1554, Elizabeth, being now become the public and avowed object of Mary's aversion, and being openly treated with much disrespect and insult, thought it most prudent to leave the court and retire to her house at Ashridge. During this period she was accompanied by Sir Thomas Pope, and others, more as spies than attendants.

Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion having broke out, to oppose the queen's match with Philip of Spain; it was im mediately pretended that princess Elizabeth, in conjunction with lord Courtenay, afterwards earl of Devon, was privately concerned in that dangerous conspiracy, and that

they

they held conferences with the traitors. The princess was consequently summoned to court; and notwithstanding her governors sent word that she was ill in health, and unfit to travel, Sir Edward Hastings, Sir Thomas Cornwall, and Sir Edward Southwell, attended by a troop of horse, were ordered to bring her to London. They found her confined to her bed at Ashridge; but under pretence of the strictness of their commission, they compelled her to rise; and still continuing very weak and indisposed, she proceeded in the queen's litter by slow journies, to London. After her release she changed her abode from this place for Hatfield, where she principally resided till she succeeded to the crown.

The collegiate church, in which lay the remains of lord chief justice Bryan, Sir Thomas and Sir John Denham, and other persons of distinction, were demolished in the reign of Elizabeth. The great hall," says Mr. Lysons, "and the cloisters, were intire in the year 1800. The hall, which was forty-four feet by twenty-two, had a rich Gothic roof, and pointed windows; and was enriched with fluted pillars on the sides. This beautiful specimen of antient architecture, though to all appearance in good repair, was pulled down by the late duke of Bridgwater, and the materials sold piece-meal: the cloisters, which were to have shared the same fate, were standing in the year 1802, after the demolition of the other buildings, but had sustained considerable injury by the pulling down of the adjoining walls. The roof of the cloisters were of Totternhoe stone; wrought with various ornaments, which remained very entire. Among these occurred the arms of the founder, and those of the monastery (a holy lamb standing on the sepulchre, and holding a banner.) The side walls were ornamented with paintings in fresco, well designed, representing the history of Our Saviour; (some parts of which serve to support a wall on the side of the high road at Tring, towards Ailesbury). Some of the figures had been well preserved, but most of them had sustained more or less injury from the damp. The additions which had been made to the conventual buildings about the reign of Elizabeth, were also

5

pulled

pulled down by the late duke," who intended to have erected a stately mansion on the site, which is now going on, from plans by Mr. Wyatt, and under the direction of the earl of Bridgewater, the present possessor. It is upon a grand scale*.

The park is five miles in circumference, and consists of hill and dale beautifully varied, covered with fine turf, and shaded with the finest trees of oak, beech, ash, &c. and has truly the striking features of an antient majestic park. Within the old house were many fine family portraits.

Little Gadesden Church, has nothing particular to recommend it as a structure. It contains, however, many stately monuments of the noble family of Egerton.

This village is famous for the birth of John de Gadesden, who flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century; the first Englishman who was a court physician, and of whose skill Chaucer makes honourable mention in his Doctor of Physic, prefixed to his Canterbury Tales; though Dr. Friend, from John's own books, will not allow him to deserve it.

Great Gadesden, formerly belonged to the antient family of D'Evreux, earls of Salisbury; afterwards to the noble family of Holland, earls and dukes of Exeter; then to lord Stanley, in the reign of Henry VII. It was conveyed by that family to Sir Robert Cecil, in the reign of Elizabeth, who granted it to Sir Adolphus Carey, whose heirs granted it to the family of Egerton. In the church are many handsome monuments in memory of the family of Halsey. The parish abounds in beech trees.

BEECHWOOD, the scat of Sir John Sebright, bart. is situated in the parish of Flamsted, and was formerly called St. Giles in the Wood. A benedictine nunnery was founded here by Roger de Toni, in the reign of king Stephen; the manor, after the dissolution of the nunnery, was granted to Sir Richard Page. It came by marriage to Sir Edward Sebright, bart. of Worcestershire; his descendant, Sir Johu Sebright, bart. the present possessor, has a farm here of

* A parliament was held at Ashridge, in the reign of Edward I.

about

about seven hundred acres. The mansion is delightfully seated on an eminence, in the centre of a park well wooded with beech, and other substantial trees.

MARKET STREET seems to have originated from being an accidental stage for the accommodation of passengers travelling towards Dunstable, and the roads which branch from the latter town: it consists of a long straggling street in a bottom, liable to floods, and has nothing to recommend it but its mere convenience.

It is situated in the parishes of Cadington and Studham. The chapel of ease to Cadington was founded by John Coppin, Esq. and by act of parliament was, in 1741, constituted a perpetual cure and benefice.

MARKET CELL, is on the site of a nunnery of Benedictines, founded by Geoffrey, abbot of St. Alban's, about the. year 1145. Humphrey, a natural son of lord Berners, was at great expence in building a mansion here, but not living to finish it, the estate was granted, in 1548, to George Ferrers, whose family continued possessors till 1640, when Sir John Ferrers, died seised of it. The family of Coppin, for a considerable period, made this their seat; the whole is at present the property, with the manor of Markgate, of Joseph Howell, Esq.

KENSWORTH church is a small structure of one piece, of Norman architecture, and is very curious. Kensworth Green is a most romantic spot.

Crossing the country from Market Street, we arrive at the road to Bedford, and

LUTON, BEDFORDSHIRE.

This town is three miles from Dunstable, and thirty-two miles from London. It is celebrated for the manufacture of straw hats; and has a corn market on Monday, and fairs on April 25, and October 18. It is pleasantly situated among hills, but is a small dirty town near the spring of the river Lea; it is also remarkable for its church and tower steeple, checquered with flint and freestone, and within it a remarkable Gothic font, in form an hexagon, open at the sides,

and

and terminating in elegant tabernacle work. Adjoining to the church is Wenlock chapel, wherein are some good mo numents. Here is a large market house.

LUTON Hog, in the parish of Luton, is the seat of the marquis of Bute, in whose old chapel is a beautiful piece of Gothic wainscot, carved in 1548, and brought hither from Tyttenhanger in 1608; and in the wood is a portico designed for a house to have been built by lord Wenlock, the antient possessor. It is one of the most beautiful pieces in brick of Gothic elegance to be seen any where; and in the park is a tower of flint and Totternhoe stone, of great antiquity. The ground has received every embellishment of art and judgment by Mr. Brown. The house was built at various periods, by different men, with all the incongruity that can be in materials and arrangements, but all these have been corrected by Mr. Adam, who erected an architectural façade on the mass, and formed such a suite of rooms, as in grandeur of dimensions, and in luxury of decoration, are not often to be equalled. The library, inferior only to Blenheim, is the most magnificent receptacle for books which Europe can exhibit in any private possession; one hundred and forty-six feet in length, divided into three rooms, the books abundantly numerous, scarce, rare, and well arranged, &c. The pictures are chiefly of the Flemish and Italian schools; among the portraits are those of Margaret, queen of Scotland, and her consort Archibald Douglas; the first earl of Pembroke; the earl of Strafford; general Ireton; Pym, the republican; Mrs. Lane, who assisted Charles II. in his flight; chancellor Jeffreys; Jonson, the poet. Dr. Johnson; Dr. Armstrong; the earl of Bute, by REYNOLDS. The grounds comprize one thousand four hundred acres. Here is a fine botanical garden. In short, ease, elegance. and literature, are prevalent throughout the place. The house stands on an elevated situation, at the edge of Bedfordshire Downs, and was erected by the earl of Bute.

The father of John Pomfret, the poet, was vicar of Luton, where it is supposed he was born in 1667.

VOL. VI. No. 123.

F

Proceeding