GAYHURST, 



BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, 



SOME two miles north of the old Buckingham- 

 shire town of Newport 1'agnell, on a gentle 

 eminence above the river Ouse, which there- 

 about extends into marshy flats, stands the 

 old manor house of Gayhurst, formerly Gotehurst, 

 which is a place of considerable dignity and archi- 

 tectural merit, as 

 is manifest from 

 our pictures, while 

 its garden attrac- 

 tions arc very con- 

 spicuous. It is 

 also a place which 

 has an interesting 

 history, and whose 

 ancient possessors 

 have done some 

 things that are 

 likely to sound as 

 long as English 

 history lasts. 

 What these things 

 were we shall now 

 proceed to relate, 

 before saying 

 anything about the 

 Gayhurst gardens, 

 which have taken 

 on new 

 and grown 

 beauty since the 

 times of which we 

 speak. Shortly 

 after the Conquest 

 Gotehurst, to call 

 it by its old name, 

 was a possession 

 of Odo, Bishop of 

 Bayeux, and it 

 afterwards passed 

 through the 

 families of Nowers, 

 N c v i 1 1 and 

 Mulsho. Pennant, 

 who gives some 

 description of the 

 house, says that it 

 was begun in the 

 year i 597, and was 

 afterwards im- 

 proved by William 

 Mulsho, the last 

 owner of his name. 

 Mary, his 

 only daughter and 

 heiress, married 



in i 5<;(> Sir Kverard Dijjby, who was esteemed in his 

 time one of the finest gentlemen in England. H 

 was a handsome anil accomplished man, was reieivcd 

 at the Court of Kli/a'xrth, and had several marks ( .t" 

 her favour. He possessed large estates in Rutland, 

 Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, and was connr 



n 



THE PORCH. 



