Stowe House 
vacancy of 
the See, alien¬ 
ated the best 
of the estates 
from the bish¬ 
opric to which 
they had been 
assigned by 
the Letters 
Patent o 1 
King Edward 
VI., amongst 
them the man¬ 
or of Stowe. 
The estate 
was purchas¬ 
ed from the 
Queen by 
Peter Tem¬ 
ple, E s q re., 
who came of 
a distinguish¬ 
ed family and 
could trace 
his descent to 
Saxon times 
and claim 
Leofric, Earl 
of Leicester, as an ancestor. He erected a manor 
house in the Elizabethan style, and enclosed 200 
acres for a deer park. His son, Thomas, was 
knighted by King James I., and created a baronet, 
whose widow lived to a great age and saw four 
generations and seven hundred of her descendants. 
THE SALOON 
THE “OXFORD BRIDGE 
Sir Peter followed his father and fought in the 
Civil War for the royal cause. His son, Sir Rich¬ 
ard, earned fame by rebuilding Stowe House, and 
died in 1697. The front of the house was rebuilt 
by his son, also named Sir Richard, who added 
the two wings. This Sir Richard was a great 
soldier and fought with the Duke of 
Marlborough in the Low Countries 
and was present at the sieges of 
Venloo and Rutemonde. Military 
honours clustered thick upon him. 
Moreover, he was a favorite at the 
Court of Queen Anne and was raised 
to the dignity of baron and then 
Viscount Cobham. He kept a gal¬ 
lant court himself at Stowe, and 
gathered together the wits, poets 
and great folks of the day, who 
roamed the extensive gardens which 
he had created, and revelled in his 
lavish hospitality. 
We shall presently stroll through 
these same gardens, “a melancholy 
relic of eighteenth century taste and 
magnificence,” filled with its pseudo- 
classical erections. Of course, Hor¬ 
ace Walpole visited this shrine of 
fashion, and, of course, he wrote 
amusingly about it. Writing to Con¬ 
way in 1770, he says, “Twice a day 
19 
