



ELVASTON CASTLE, 



DERBYSHIRE, 



THE SEAT OF THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF HARRINGTON. 



JGjLVASTON is five miles south of Derby. The road being flat and even, the Castle is not visible 

 until after leaving Alvaston; then a group of towers are displayed, the Church appearing to form a 

 part of the building. 



The Manor of Elvaston belonged, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, to Tochi, but, when the 

 survey was taken, it was held by GeofTry Alselin. This Geoffiy was ancestor of the Baronial family 

 of Hanselyn, whose heirs brought this manor and the rest of the barony to the Bardolfs. It afterwards 

 belonged to the Blount family ; Walter Blount, one of the Lords Mountjoy, known as the warrior, was 

 born here, and died in 1403. At a later period it was possessed by the Stanhopes, whose noble 

 descendants still own the domain. Elvaston was one of the seats of Sir John Stanhope, father of the 

 first Earl of Chesterfield. 



In the month of January, 1643, Elvaston is said to have been plundered by the soldiers or 

 retainers of Sir John Gell, of Hopton, in Derbyshire, who, to gratify a savage and insatiable revenge, 

 desecrated the Church by defacing one of its costly marble monuments, that of Sir John Stanhope the 

 elder, and destroyed a flower garden, — the favourite resort of Lady Stanhope. 



The Church of Elvaston had been given to the Priory of Shelford by the founder, Ralph 

 Hanselyn, and at the Dissolution in the 29th and 31st Henry VIII, the Priory of Shelford, with a 

 greater part of its possessions, was granted to Sir Michael Stanhope. 



A curious and somewhat inexplicable custom in reference to the support of this Church may here 

 be noticed. The inhabitants of Elvaston and Ock-brook were formerly obliged to brew, annually, certain 

 Church ales, at which they were all required to be present, and to contribute small payments, which 

 were applied to the repairs of the Church.* 



The monument to Sir John Stanhope the elder, referred to, cost the enormous sum of £600— an 

 immense sum for those days. 



Elvaston Church was erected about the time of Henry VI. Indeed there is his monogram on the 

 Rood Screen in the Chancel, and at the entrance a cock and antelope, which were his supporters. 



Besides the monument to Sir John Stanhope the elder, already alluded to, there is a fine marble 



Dodsworth's MSS. in the Bodleian Library. 



