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the Castle. The buildings are mostly of brick, and irregular; but are interspersed with various handsome houses, inhabited by respectable families. The number of houses in this parish, as returned under the Population Act, was 338; that of inhabitants, 1690.

BERKHAMSTED PLACE, the seat of John Roper, Esq. stands on a pleasant eminence adjoining the town. The Mansion is an irregular building; great part of the structure erected by the Careys having been burnt down in the time of the Lord Treasurer Weston, who then resided in it: the remainder, which constituted the back part, was afterwards repaired, and with some additions, forms the present dwelling: this Manor-house was the nursery of King James's children.

PENDLEY HOUSE, the ancient seat of the Andersons, and previously of the Verneys, of whom Sir John Verney, Knt. was Sheriff of Hertfordshire and Essex, in the fourteenth of Henry the Seventh, and Edmond Verney, Esq. Sheriff of Herts in the nineteenth of Elizabeth, has been pulled down by Richard Bard Harcourt, Esq. the present owner of the manor, whose predecessors acquired it by marriage with the heiress of the Andersons.

TRING,

CALLED Treung in the Domesday Book, is a small and irregu lar town, situated on the north-western side of the county, on the high road to Ailesbury, and within a short distance of the Icknield Way. William the Conqueror granted the manor to Robert, Earl of Ewe, or Comes Eustachius, in whose time it was valued at 221. in Albis Denariis, or white money; supposed by Salmon to mean silver with a coarse alloy. Soon afterwards it reverted to the Crown; and, in the year 1148, was given by King Stephen, with all its appurtenances, to the Abbey of Feversham, in Kent, which he had then founded. His grant was confirmed to the monks by succeeding Sovereigns; and Edward the Second gave them a charter for a weekly market, and two annual fairs. After the Dissolution, Henry the Eighth granted the manor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who conveyed it to Sir Edward North, Knt. Treasurer

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Treasurer and Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations. By him it was transferred to Sir Richard Lee, who exchanged it for lands in the vicinity of St. Alban's, with Edward the Sixth. It was again granted from the Crown, by Philip and Mary, in their second year, to Henry Peckham, Esq. and Elizabeth, his wife, in reward for the exertions of the former in the service of the Queen. This gentleman was most probably a zealous Catholic, as he was attainted of treason, in the time of Elizabeth, and divested of the rewards bestowed on him by her predecessor. James the First vested it in trustees for the use of the Prince of Wales: and it finally passed from the Crown to Henry Guy, Esq. who was Clerk of the Treasury in the reigns of Charles the Second, James the Second, and William and Mary. He sold it, about the year 1688, to Sir William Gore, Knt. some time Lord Mayor of London, whose descendant, Thomas Gore, Esq. disposed of it a few years ago; and it is now the property of Sir Drummond Smith, Bart, who has recently married the widow of the late Sir Francis Sykes, of Basildon, in Berkshire.

Tring Church is a large and well-proportioned regular building, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, and consisting of a nave, side aisles, and chancel, with a massive tower at the west end: the walls are supported by strong buttresses, and the whole is embattled. The tower has originally opened into the Church, by a sharp pointed arch, with plain mouldings, and two small pillars on each side: the lower part is now used as a vestry. The nave is separated from the aisles by six pointed arches, rising from high clustered columns. The roof is of timber frame-work, with strong beams going across; the supporters on each side are terminated by a carved figure, each of which has a well sculptured figure for a corbel base. These figures are curious: one of them is a monkey, with a book and purse; another is a fox, with a goose; another, a muzzled bear; a sucking pig; dogs in various attitudes, and of different species; Nebuchadnezzar, in his degraded state, having a human face, with a long beard, and a lion's body; &c. Most of the windows have obtuse pointed arches, and are divided

into

into three compartments by mullions: the east window of each aisle is larger than the others, and more ornamented by ramifications.

This edifice was neatly repaired about the year 1715, at the expense of William Gore, Esq. successor to Sir William Gore, on his marriage with a daughter of the Earl of Northampton. At the same period it was new-pewed with oak, and the columns of the nave were painted in resemblance of variegated marble; as well as the wainscotting of the chancel, which had been previously put up at the expense of Sir Richard Anderson, Bart. of Pendley, and is embellished with Corinthian pilasters. The Altar-piece represents Moses and Aaron, with tables of the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed. In the pavement within the rails are various slabs in memory of the Andersons of Pendley, (who have also other memorials here;) and another in commemoration of MRS. ELIZABETH GUY, wife to Henry Guy, Esq. of whom the manor was purchased by the Gores. Against the south wall is a very handsome mural monument, inclosing a tablet, with a medallion of JOHN GORE, Esq. of Bush Hill, Middlesex, who died in Au gust, 1765, at the age of seventy-four; and, together with his wife, HANNAH, daughter of Sir Jeremy Vanacka Sambrooke, Bart, who died in March, 1763, aged seventy-one; and their only son, John Gore, Esq. was interred beneath. Against the north wall is a costly monument in memory of SIR WILLIAM GORE, Knt. and his lady, ELIZABETH, constructed of alabaster and black marble: the deceased are represented by figures in reclining positions on each side an urn; the Knight is dressed in his gown and chain; his Lady in the habit of her time, adorned with lace. Above is the Mace, with the Sword and Cap of Maintenance, in saltire; over which is a pediment, surmounted by the arms of the Gores, and otherwise ornamented. Sir William died on the twentieth of January, 1707, at the age of sixty-four; his Lady died at the age of fifty-two, in 1705: their virtues are recorded by long inscriptions on the lower part of the monument.

The Market-House is a mean edifice on wooden pillars, having a pillory and a cage beneath. The market is principally held for the sale of corn, meat, and straw-plat. Various small donations,

that have been given for the use of the poor, are enumerated on a table in the Church; and a Sunday School, for about eighty boys and girls, has been established by subscription. A small old building, called the Pest-House, is now inhabited by poor people. Tring contains four Meeting-houses, for the respective sects of General Baptists, Particular Baptists, Anabaptists, and Quakers. The number of houses in this township, as ascertained under the Act of 1800, was 328; that of inhabitants, 1621. The manufac ture of straw-plat constitutes the employment of most of the females in this part of the country. A curious paper concerning a learned Taylor named ROBERT HILL, who was born in this town, was inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, for September, 1754. TRING PARK, the beautiful seat of Sir Drummond Smith, Bart. so created in May, 1804, consists of between 300 and 400 acres, ranging on the south-east side of the town, and pleasantly varied by bold swells and commanding eminences. Some of the timber is very fine; and the beech is particularly luxuriant and flourishing. The House is a large and convenient building: the principal apartments are spacious, and very neatly fitted up: the southern windows command some extremely fine and extensive prospects over the adjacent grounds, and into the contiguous vales of Buckinghamshire. The Hall is ornamented with Corinthian pillars: at the upper end is a very excellent Game Piece, by Snyders; and on each side, near the top, are six whole-length figures, in pannels, of Queen Elizabeth, Mary, Queen of Scots, General Lambert, General Ireton, and others. In the Billiard Room is a fine picture of the Maries with the Body of Christ, by Paul Veronese; a Girl with Fruit; and several portraits. In a small Drawing Room, opening from the Hall, is a curious full-length of QUEEN ELIZABETH, probably copied from a painting of the same Princess by Zucchero, mentioned by Walpole as being preserved in the gallery at Kensington Palace. The dress is fancifull imagined, and richly wrought with birds and flowers. Her right hand is placed on the head of a stag, who is crowned with flowers. Behind is a tree, on the branches of which swallows are perched; and on the trunk the following sentences are inscribed.

VOL. VII. FEB. 1806.

K

Injusta

Injusta Justa Querala.

Mea Sic Mihi.

Dolor est Medicina

Dolori.

On a scroll in the corner below the tree are these lines:

The restles swallow fits my restles mind,
In still renewing still reviving wrongs;
Her just complaints of cruelty unkind,
Is all the musick that my life prolongs.

With pensive thoughts my weeping Stag I crown,
Whose melancholy tears my cares express;

His tears in silence and my griefs unknown,
Are all the phisick that my harms redress.

My only hope was in this goodly tree,

Which I did plant in love, bring up in care;
But all in vain, for now too late I see

The shells be mine, the kernels others' are:-
My musick may be plaints, my phisick tears,
If this be all the fruits my love-tree bears.

On the floor above the Hall, and running across the house, is a handsome Gallery, or Ball Room, having a circular dome in the centre. Most of the other apartments on this floor are Dressing and Bed Rooms: in one of the latter is a fine painting of Diana and Endymion. This house was erected about the time of Charles the Second, by Henry Guy, Esq. who, according to Salmon,

adorned it with gardens of unusual form and beauty.' The Park was laid out by the Gores, and is now abundantly stocked with fine deer.

TRING GROVE, a short distance north-east from Tring, is the pleasant residence of Broadwood, Esq. brother to Lady Dashwood,

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