AMPTHILL PARK 75 



instances old places do) to the St. Amands and 

 the Beauchamps. 



From the Beauchamps it passed by purchase to 

 one whose life might be described as being one long 

 romance. This hero was John, the son of Sir 

 John Cornwall, his mother being the niece of the 

 Duke of Brittany. From the circumstance of his 

 birth taking place at sea, in the bay of St. Michael's 

 Mount, he was nicknamed " Green Cornwall." He 

 grew up to be celebrated for deeds of valour and 

 chivalry, and at York, in 1401, when a tournament 

 was held in honour of Henry IV., Cornwall defeated 

 and overthrew in the King's presence two knights, 

 one an Italian, the other a Frenchman, and received 

 from the King's hand the Order of the Garter. 

 Besides gaining this distinction, he had the good 

 fortune to win the hand of the King's sister 

 Elizabeth (the second daughter of John, Earl of 

 Lancaster, generally known as John of Gaunt), 

 widow of the Duke of Exeter. On their marriage 

 the King loaded them with gifts, and the Prince of 

 Wales gave a large portion of land in the county of 

 Cornwall to the bridegroom. The old castle, built 

 by Cornwall in honour of his royal wife, made the 

 little market town of Ampthill famous through its 

 magnificence. Leland, "the King's Antiquary" 

 (born about 1506), in his delightful old " Itinerary," 

 writes of Cornwall as a man of great fame and very 

 rich, and as having built the castle with " such 



