80 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



well-known minister, the Duke of Grafton, who was 

 so severely censured in the " Letters of Junius." 

 Unable to tolerate her husband's manner of life (of 

 which Walpole gives a graphic description) she 

 divorced him and married, in 1769, Lord Ossory. 

 To-day she is chiefly known as the fervent friend 

 and frequent correspondent of Walpole. Of 

 Ampthill this fastidious judge deigns to say " that 

 it stands finely : the house is very good, and has a 

 beautiful park." 



The origin of the cross put up in memory of 

 Katherine of Arragon, and mentioned in Luttrell's 

 poem, is discovered in a letter of Horace Walpole's 

 to a friend. " I have lately been at Lord Ossory 's 

 at Ampthill," he writes. "You know Katherine of 

 Arragon lived sometime there. Nothing remains 

 of the castle, nor any marks of residence, but a 

 very small bit of her garden. I proposed to Lord 

 Ossory to erect a cross to her memory on the spot, 

 and he will. I wish, therefore, you could, from your 

 collection of books or memory, pick out an authentic 

 form of a cross, of a better appearance than the 

 common run. It must be raised on two or three 

 steps : and if they were octagon would it not be 

 handsomer? Her arms must be hung like an order 

 upon it, the shield appendant to a collar. We will 

 have some inscription to mark the cause of 

 erection." And later he wrote again : " Lord 

 Ossory is charmed with Mr. Essex's cross, and 



