84 Ambresbury Monastery. 
“ Ambrosbury. A large body of a man found here, the thigh- 
bone 21 inches. Saw the Duke of Queensberry’s: a Chinese House 
and Bridge, and fine Canals in the gardens. In the Housea grand 
new Room and furniture, Chimney pieces, red and white marble: 
the fable of the Stork and the Fox carved on them: Emblems of 
Her Grace’s hospitality.| The Barber the best cicerone in the 
village.” 
William fourth Duke of Queensberry died 1810: and in 1824 
his estate was purchased by Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart. 
Ambresbury house was built by John Webb from the designs 
of his master Inigo Jones.2 Colin Campbell adopted Inigo 
Jones’s principles, and fixed ‘“‘The Ambresbury type’’ as the man- 
sion of the 18th century. The house has been renovated by Mr. 
Hopper, architect. The church was restored in Misi. at the 
expense of Sir Edmund Antrobus. 
In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iv., p. 27, 
are woodcuts of three curious old seals found at Ambresbury in 
1843: and in the Journal of the Archeological Institute, vol. ii. 
p- 194, are drawings of two memorial escutcheons with the initials 
I. D., and K. D. in the church. 
Ambresbury was in 1188 the birthplace of Ela Devereux, heiress 
of the Earls of Sarum, and foundress of Lacock Abbey in Wilts, 
and Henton Charterhouse Abbey, co. Somerset. That part of the 
estate which belonged to her family was called Ambresbury Comets g 
or Earl’s. 
In his history of the Hundred of Ambresbury, Sir R. C. Hoare 
has omitted to mention that the Hundred included some outlying 
portions of co. Wilts, lying within co. Berks., viz., part of Shinfield, 
(alias Dydenham) comprising an old manor of Beaumys or Beames; _ 
Hinton and Haines Hill, in Hurst ; Swallowfield, including Farley, 
and Sheepridge: and Wokingham, some part. J. E. J. 
1 Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of Henry, Earl of Clarendon and Rochester, 
the ‘Kitty, beautiful and young” of Prior’s Ballad, ‘“‘The Female Phaeton.” 
For an account of her see Burke’s Romantic Records, vol. ii., p. 31. As one of 
the three coheiresses of Henry Earl of Clarendon in 1753, (the other two being 
the Countess of Essex and lady Mary Forbes), she succeeded to one third share 
of the great Lord Clarendon’s pictures. 
? Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painters, &c., iii., 168. 

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