170 THE PITT FAMILY OF BLANDFORD ST. MARY. 



Nuns. The negotiations for this purchase went on for a 

 long time, and are repeatedly mentioned up to 1710, when 

 he at last acquired the estate. After this purchase the 

 demolition of a house is spoken of, which was presumably the 

 old Chettle Manor House, standing at the end of the avenue 

 on the right of the hill coming up from the Brewery, where 

 the traces of the foundation are still visible. 



In the letters we hear frequently of " my house at Bland- 

 ford S. Mary," but nothing more definite as to its position or 

 name is stated. There seems good reason, however, to suppose 

 that the older part of the present " Down House " is what he 

 refers to, and that it was erected by him about this time. 

 Subsequently he also purchased lands on the other side of 

 the Stour, Keynston, Preston, &c., which were sold to him by 

 his cousin George Morton Pitt, and are still part of the Down 

 House Estate. 



Other estates acquired by Governor Pitt were at 

 Okehampton, in Devon, and Swallowfield, in Berks ; but 

 his greatest purchase of all, and one that gave him subse- 

 quently much trouble, was that of Boconnoc, in Cornwall. 

 He bought it from the executors of Lord Mohun, who fell 

 in one of the most notorious duels of those days, when he 

 and his opponent, the Duke of Hamilton, both were killed, 

 in the year 1712. In after years Boconnoc became the chief 

 family residence, and it is there that the portrait of this 

 remarkable man is still preserved, in which he is drawn with 

 the famous diamond in his hat. And here we may perhaps 

 well add the tale of this historic gem, which is so often men- 

 tioned in the correspondence and usually called " my grand 

 concern." The care of it and the seeking of a purchaser 

 was a source of endless anxiety to him, and he was latterly 

 so annoyed with the various stories reported in social circles 

 about his original acquisition of the treasure, that he wrote 

 a careful account for the perusal and use of his executors. 

 The whole document is in the Dropmore papers. The gem 

 was found in a mine near the Kistna river by a coolie, who hid 

 it in a wound in his leg, round which I suppose a bandage 



