BUDDLESGATE HUNDRED 



NURSLING 



Charles Mill, bart., in 1835." The rate-books of the 

 parish show well the various tenants of the mansion 

 with 88 acres during the next century, the most 

 interesting names up to 1813 being General Sir John 

 Clavering from 1765 to 1773, James Harris, after- 

 wards created earl of Malmesbuiy, in 1775, and James 

 Drummond in 1 8 1 1 . M About the year 1813 Dr. 

 Edward Middleton, M.D., was dwelling at Grove 

 Place, having taken a twenty-one years' lease, re- 

 newable on payment of a fine, of the mansion and 

 88 acres from the dean and canons of Windsor. He 

 also rented the farm-lands from Sir Charles Mill the 

 lessee, and after his death in 1835 his widow 

 continued to do so from Sir John Barker Mill, bart. 87 

 Dr. Middleton converted the house and premises into 

 a lunatic asylum, and in adapting the mansion for the 

 purpose permanent injury was done to the interior, 

 especially to the great dining-room and long gallery, 

 the latter being divided off into separate chambers 

 by wooden partitions covered with lath and plaster. 

 Dr. Middleton died in 1826, and the tenancy and 

 use to which the place had been turned were con- 

 tinued by his widow, who died in 1847 as lessee in 

 possession. 88 Two years later the charge of the place 

 as a lunatic asylum was undertaken by Mr. Pothecary 

 and Dr. Symes, and so it continued till 1854, after 

 which time the mansion remained vacant for six 

 years. 89 In consequence of the death of Sir John 

 Barker Mill, bart., in 1 860, who some time before had 

 conveyed to Henry John third Viscount Palmerston 

 all his leasehold estate in the farm-lands, the dean and 

 canons of Windsor in that year sold the whole manor 

 of Southwells, including Grove Place, to Lord 

 Palmerston. 90 Lord Palmerston, who died in 1865, 

 bequeathed the property to his step-son the Right 

 Hon. William Francis Cowper (who assumed the 

 surname of Temple), a younger son of Lady Palmerston, 

 by her first husband the fifth Earl Cowper. Mr. 

 Cowper -Temple was created in 1880 Lord Mount- 



Temple. He died in 1 888 without issue, and 

 was succeeded by his nephew the Hon. Anthony 

 Evelyn Ashley, who sold Grove Place with 65 acres 



COWPIR. Argent three 

 martlets gules and a chief 

 engrailed gules 'with three 

 rings or therein. 



TEMPLE. Argent two 

 bart table with three 

 martlets or upon each. 



of land to Captain Bulmer de Sales La Terriere in 

 1895. It was bought by Mr. Clarence Wilson, the 

 present owner, in 1906. 



Grove Place is a pretty specimen of an Elizabethan 

 house of red brick with stone dressings, fronting to 

 the south, with a main block standing east and west, 

 and wings projecting southward at either end, with 

 tall octagonal staircase turrets set in the angles formed 

 by the wings and the main block. The entrance 

 doorway is central, and opens to the screens of the hall, 

 the kitchen and offices lying to the west. The house 

 is of three stories, with a red-tiled roof, and many 

 of the windows retain their original stone mullions 

 and transoms, though some have been replaced by 

 eighteenth-century sashes. The hall is on the ground 

 floor, and some of the original oak panelling re- 

 mains in position at its east or upper end, the 

 screens being made up of woodwork removed from 

 the passage on the first-floor of the east wing. 

 It has a large fireplace in its north wall with a four- 

 rentred head, the spandrels of which have modern 



& 



r ^H?j 



m&^ 

 f" 



GROVE PLACE, NURSLING : THE SOUTH FRONT 



85 Proc. Hants Field Cluk,m, pt, 2, p. 1 2 3 . 



"Upon the restoration by Act of 

 Parliament of the family honours which 

 were forfeited in 1746 by his ancestor for 



his adhesion to the fortunes of the young 

 Pretender, James Drummond became 

 8th Viscount Strathallan and Baron 

 Drummond. 



4^7 



1 Proc. Hants Field Club, iii, pt. 2, p. 1 24. 

 Ibid. 125. 

 Ibid. 

 Ibid. 



