HISTORIC MOOR PARK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 66

HISTORIC MOOR PARK.

Moor Park. Lord ElburyV '■oat iio&r Rickmanswxftth, is one of the best examples of Italian architecture in England. It was built by a certan Mr Styles, who made an enormous fortune at the time of the South Sea Bubble. He had bought the estate *rom the Duchess of Momnomh. and thinking the brick house which Charles IT's son had builb for himself* and fcis Buccleuch brids not good enough, to live in, pulled it do-rrn and erected a stone one from plans designed by Siv William Thornhill. aided by an Italian— Giacorno Leoni. The carting of the stone from the London wharves cost £14,000. Starting from that item ftlone it does not require a very vivid imagination to guess that the sum spent on the palace — for palace it certainly is— was enormous. A beautiful Corinthian portico is the chief feature of the exterior of the 'building, and the most famous thing inside the walls is a painted ceilinw copied from one by Guido, for which Mr Styles had to pay £3000, claimed by an action at law, above and beyond tjie price given for the actual painting. At Mr Styles's> death the property wa.- purchased by Lord Anson, from whon it passed to" its present possessors, the Giosvenors. Moor Park history is interesting. Originally it belonged to the Abbey of St. Allbans. After the Battle of Bosr-vorth, Henry VII granted it to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford ; who — conscience-stricken at being possessor of church lands — left it on his death-bed to the monks. At the time when Henry VIII finally spoiled the Abbeys, Moor Park was assigned to the Russell family, together with Tavistock Abbay. Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford," laid out the gardens, which were praised long afterwards by Sir William Temple as " the perfectest- figure of a garden " he had ever beheld. From the Ru&sells the place parsed to the Franklyns, one of whom sold it to the Karl of Ossory. Then King Chnrles II bought it for his favourite son, the unfortunate Duke of Montnouth. He it was «rho built the brick house — " the best piece of brick-work in England," as Pepys. calls it — which Mr Styles pulled down. The Duchess was living here with her children •when the Duke made his snitch, at the crown. After his death, on Tower Hill, j she had the head of every oak in the park lopped off. One wonders if Duchess Anne gave tais curious order from a feeling of shame at her ! husband's tragic death. Pure sorrow it j could not have oeen, for although Sir Walter -Scott v.-rites of her as -weeping over '• Monmouth'h bloody tomb,' it is a fact I that she never loved the handsome lad i to whom they had married her when but a child of 13. " She was the greatest heiress in the three kingdoms, and " carried a Ducal coronet tacked to her kirtle." so Charles thought lie had secured an ideal bride for his darling son. But the Duchess was plain, and proud, and lame, and clever — not the wife for Monmouth. who had inherited his father's easy ;>nd witty nature. After the Duke's Execution she lived quietly at Moor Park in the shade of her lopped oaks until old JLord Cornwallis persuaded her to marry him. She lived to be 81, and died at her Scottish. horne a Dalkeith. As her first husband's attainder did not extend to Scotland, the Dukedom of Buccleuch passed to the heirb of her eldest son. The present Puke of Buccleuch is the lineal descendant j)f Monmouth and Duchess Anne.