CANONS ASHBY, 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



I\ the south-western corner of Northamptonshire, 

 not far from the historic country <>t Warwick and 

 Stratford-on-Avon, stands the picturesque oKl 

 mansion nf Canons Ashby, the sc.it of Sir Alfred 

 Erasmus Dryden, Bart., which, with its terr.ue.l 

 gardens, graceful gateway-, noble cedars, clipped yews 

 and monastic church, forms one of the most interesting 

 groups of buildings of that district. The present 

 owner succeeded to the mansion and surrounding 

 estate on the death, in I 899, of his brother, Sir I lenry 

 Dryden, the well-known antiquary and archaeologist, 

 who had resided there for neirly the whole of his 

 long life. The oldest part of the house dates back to 

 the early part of the sixteenth century, when the first 

 recorded John Dryden came from Cumberland to take 

 possession ot "his inheritance " at Canons Ashhy. 



Alterations and additions were made to the 

 house in the times of Queen Kli/ ibcth, James I. and 

 Quevn Anne ; but fro:n the latter date onward the 

 successive owners have been wise enough to preserve 

 the house, both outside and inside, from the vandalism 

 which has disfigured so m.my of the medi.r\al 

 mansions of " merrie England," and Canons \shl>\ 

 and its surroundings are now much what they were 

 in the Queen Anne period, when the men in all the 

 bravery of embroidered coats, and the ladies in their 

 dainty brocades and laces, may have paced the terra, e.i 

 garden or wandered beneath the spreading trees which 

 surround the mansion. The house, however, which 

 thus, with certain lands, belonged to the Drydens 

 before the Reformation, formed no part of the estate 

 or buildings which belonged formerly to a Priory 



lllh. OMAV'A.V STEPS. 



