NUNEHAM COURT. E NAY, 



OXFORDSHIRE. 



THE SEAT OF GEORGE GRANVILLE HARCOURT, ESQUIRE, MP. 



JNlUNEHAM COURTENAY, called in Domesday " Nevham," is situated on the banks of the river Isis, 

 about six miles from Oxford, in the hundred of Bullington. In the 20th Conq. it was held of the King 

 by Richard de Curci, and formed an extensive estate, with a mill and fisheries. One Hacon was tenant, 

 and its annual value, both then and in the time of Edward the Confessor, was xiii pounds. From 

 Richard cle Curci it passed to the Redvers, Earls of Devon, surnamed de Vernon, and from them to 

 Robert de Courtenay, Baron of Okehampton, in 1214. There is no doubt the latter part of its 

 appellation was derived from this family, however uncertain the origin of the former. Subsequently the 

 Pollards, of Devon, the Audleys, Robert Wright, Bishop of Lichfield, John Robinson, knighted by 

 Charles II, in IC60, and the Earl of Wemys, became its possessors, either by marriage or purchase, 

 and from the latter nobleman it was bought, in 1710, by Simon, first Lord Harcourt, of Stanton 

 Harcourt, co. Oxford, Chancellor of England. The Harcourts are descended from Bernard, a Prince of 

 Saxony, who attended Rollo in his invasion of Normandy in 876, and to whom was given, with two 

 other lordships, that of Harcourt in the same kingdom. Errand de Harcourt commanded the Archers of 

 Val-de-Ruel, at the battle of Hastings, and in the reign of Henry I, Robert, second son of the above 

 Errand de Harcourt, married Isabel, daughter of Milicent, kinswoman of Adeliza, second wife of 

 that King, by whom he acquired the estates of Stanton Harcourt, and where his descendants resided 

 upwards of six centuries. But little of the original mansion remains ; the chapel, however, is entire, 

 and remarkable for the number and magnificence of its family tombs and monuments, and for the small 

 tower attached to it, where, "In the year 1718, Alexander Pope finished the fifth volume of Homer,"— 

 an inscription written by Pope himself on a pane of red stained glass, in a window there, and since 

 removed to Nuneham. There also exists an ancient and curious building — the only example of the kind 

 in England with the exception of that at Glastonbury — which Plot says, " one may truly call either 

 a kitchen within a chimney, or a kitchen without one." 



The present noble owner is George Granville Harcourt, Esquire, M.P., whose many improvements 

 on the estate are of a marked and effective character, and to whom the public are greatly indebted for 

 the daily privilege of wandering at will about the park and portions of the grounds, and of viewing the 

 gardens at stated times during the week. 



The house stands on the face of a fine sweeping hill, embowered by trees and masses of shrubbery, 

 which stretch to a considerable distance on either side, and is fronted by verdant slopes of pasture land, 

 and a fertile meadow, upwards of a mile long, through which the silvery Isis beautifully winds. It is 

 a commodious, well-built, stone edifice, consisting of a centre and two wings, joined by inflected corridors. 

 On the succession of the late Archbishop of York to the property, his Grace made considerable 

 alterations, and greatly improved the mansion. The buildings on the home farm, and the stables, with 

 many others, were then built, and the gardens much enlarged. The carriage road diverges from the 

 east front in opposite directions, the boundary lodges being upwards of two miles distant from each 

 other, the intervening space consisting of the original park, which comprised about twelve hundred acres, 

 but is now curtailed to about one half by two separate terminal enclosures. It is well stocked , with 

 fallow deer, and contains some fine and excellent timber, especially oak and elm. The surface is 

 gently undulating, and its general character richly diversified and beautiful. Near the boundary, on 

 the summit of a bold hill, is placed the Conduit that formerly stood on Carfax, Oxford, erected by 

 Otho Nicholson, M.A., of Christ Church, in the year 1617, for the purpose of supplying the different 

 colleges and halls of Oxford with water from North Hinksey, and presented to Earl Harcourt by the 

 University in 1787. It is a curious piece of masonry, and traditionally reported to have run with 

 wine at the Restoration. The view from this point is most beautiful and extended, and there are few 

 scenes so peculiarly interesting. The towers of Oxford, the classic Isis, and the spires of Abingdon are 

 distinctly visible, and how thoroughly are their varied associations impressed on the mind of the 

 antiquary and the scholar! 



