and Wooburn Deyncourt. The former remained attached to Lincoln, and became the favorite seat of its bishops, the rectory being converted into the episcopal palace; but was alienated in 1547, and two years afterwards granted to John, Duke of Bedford, whose son sold it about 1580 to Sir John Goodwin. The latter was held of the above See by Walter Deyncourt, in whose family it continued till the year 1420, when William, the last male heir, dying a minor, was succeeded by his sister Alice, married to William, Lord Lovell, whose grandson Francis, in herited her estates, which, on his attainder, at the commencement of the reign of Henry the Seventh, reverted to the Crown. By Henry the Eighth the manor was granted for a certain term to Sir William Compton, (ancestor to the Earls of Northampton,) whose posterity inherited it till the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, who granted it in perpetuity to Robert Spencer and Robert Atkins, Esqs. but it soon afterwards became vested in the Goodwins, by the marriage of Sir John Goodwin with the daughter of Sir William Spencer, and thus the two manors again were united. In the reign of Charles the First, Jane, the sole heiress of the Goodwins, married Philip, Lord Wharton.

This Nobleman having succeeded to the estates of the Goodwins, made Winchenden his principal place of residence till the decease of his lady, after which he resided at Wooburn. His Lordship appears to have been a friend to the principles through which Charles the First was ejected from the throne, and was one of the Commissioners sent by Parliament to Scotland; yet, as he had taken no decided part in the execution of the Monarch, he was, at the Restoration, permitted to retire into privacy. The oppressive conduct of James the Second again called him to the busy world, and he had the pleasure of" seeing his exertions in favor of constitutional

This nobleman was made knight of the garter by Richard the Third, whose cause he had embraced, and likewise one of his ministers. The quibbling distich written by William Collingbourne, and for which he was brought to the gallows under pretence of rebellion, refer to this Francis. The verse was as follows:

"The cat, the rat, and Lovell the dog,
"Rule all England under the hog."

constitutional liberty sealed by the Bill of Rights." William the Third visited him at Wooburn soon after he had obtained possession of the crown. Lord Wharton died in 1695, at the advanced age of 83, and was succeeded by Thomas his son, whose attachment to the cause of freedom was eminently displayed by the first draught of the invitation to the Prince of Orange, which is said to have been composed by his Lordship. For this and other services he was made privy counsellor by King William ; and in the year 1706 was created Viscount Winchenden and Earl Wharton, for his conduct in settling the terms of the union with Scotland. In the high political disputes which divided the nation during the latter years of Queen Anne, his Lordship opposed the Ministry; yet soon after the accession of George the First, he was made Lord Privy Seal; and on the first of January, 1715, created Marquis of Wharton and Malmsbury. These honors he enjoyed but a short time, for he died on the 12th of April following, and was succeeded by the versatile Philip, of whom we have before spoken. This inconsistent and extraordinary character, whose life being regulated by no principle, displayed a mingled series of absurd and contradictory actions, resigned his breath in a disgraceful obscurity at a small monastery in Spain. His vigor of talent, and strange impropriety of conduct, have been finely described by Pope in his Moral Essays.

WHARTON, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise;
Born with whate'er could win it from the wise,
Women and fools must like him, or he dies.
Though wondering senates hung on all he spoke,
The club must hail him master of the joke.
Shall parts so various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot too;
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the same spirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough, if all around him but admire;
And now the punk applaud, and now the friar.

* See description of Woburn, Bedfordshire.

Thus

Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt,
And most contemptible to shun contempt;
His passion still to covet general praise;
His life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;
A constant bounty, which no friend has made;
An angel tongue, which no man can persuade;
A fool, with more of wit than half mankind;
Too rash for thought, for action too refin'd;
A tyrant to the wife his heart approves,

A rebel to the very king he loves;

He dies, sad outcast of each church and state,
And, harder still, flagitious, yet not great.

After the Duke's decease, Wooburn was sold to John Morse, Esq. whose neice and heiress was wife to Peregrine Bertie, Esq. This family remained owners till the year 1784, when it was purchased by the late Mrs. Rebecca Du Pré, whose son is the present lord of the manor.

Earl Wharton is said to have expended 100,000l. in altering the grounds belonging to the manor-house, which was surrounded with a moat, and retained its ancient character of feudal magnificence. The gardens, as improved by the Earl, were in that age highly celebrated, and are reported to have been a line of terraces on the side of the hill which has since been converted into pasture. The mansion was very large, and the apartments spacious. The gallery was 120 feet in length, and contained the very celebrated collection of portraits of the Wharton family which were afterwards purchased by Sir Robert Walpole.

VOL. I.

C c

This

* In an extensive wilderness in the vicinity of the house, "a quantity of gold angels, to the value of 501. was discovered about thirty years since, and are supposed to have been concealed in the great Rebellion. There is a tradition that at that period Lord Wharton concealed 60,000l. in a wood, called West Wood, and that at the Restoration he could not recollect the exact spot, the only person privy to the transaction being either dead or in exile, but that, after clearing two acres, the whole was discovered."

Langley's Hundred of Desborough.

This mansion was taken down in the year 1750, and the materials sold for 8001. Soon afterwards one of the stable wings was fitted up as a dwelling-house by Mr. Bertie; and in 1769 the whole was new fronted, and converted into a convenient family residence, by the crection of some additional apartments. The Wycombe stream flows through the garden and meadows. The chapel connected with the old manor-house, is still mentioned in terms of admiration by the aged inhabitants of the village.

In a small room adjoining to this structure, named Little Ease, from the inconvenient manner in which it was constructed, some of those unfortunate people, whom a corrupted prelacy called heretics, were confined in the latter end of the reign of Henry the Seventh. The palace was then inhabited by Bishop Smith, whose zeal for persecution appears to have been heightened by the constant perusal of a manual which he had composed from directions contained in a larger work, for the behaviour of ecclesiastics towards those who held heterodox opinions. Thomas Chace, of Amersham, who had given offence by his religious tenets, was seized, in 1506, and having in vain been exhorted to recant, was imprisoned by the Bishop in the above chamber. The Bishop's chaplains next attempted to induce him to renounce the principles of his belief; but neither arguments nor threatenings having any influence, they strangled, and pressed him to death privately. To conceal the knowledge of this detestable transaction, as well as to stigmatize the memory of their immolated victim, they reported that he had hanged himself in his prison, on which he was disgracefully buried as a suicide in Norland Wood, in a highway between Wooburn and Little Marlow.

Wooburn church is a large ancient building, with a nave, two aisles, and a good tower. It contains several monuments of the Bertie and Wharton families. The one to the memory of Philip, Lord Wharton, who died in 1695, is a handsome mural monument of grey marble. The font is a curious and ancient piece of carved work. This parish contains 2596 acres, principally disposed in arable and wood land; about 230 houses, and 1200 inhabitants. The Wycombe stream runs through the

whole