[B] ASHENDEN. This manor has been from time immemorial in the Grenville family. John Bucktot, a priest, gave the manor of Little Pollicott, to Lincoln College, in Oxford, about 1479; and what renders it particularly remarkable, is the circumstance of the manor house being used as a retiring place for the members of the college at the time of the plague. In Ashenden Church, is an ancient figure of a crusader, under an arch, rudely ornamented with foliage; which according to tradition, is the tomb of John Bucktot; this appears however to be erroneous, as it is evidently the tomb of a layman, and from the chevron on the shield, one of the Stafford family, anciently lords of Great Pollicott. [Sidenote: A retiring place for collegians in the time of the plague.] [C] ASHFIELD. This obscure village gave birth to the celebrated Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and his brother, the late Bishop of Durham; they were the sons of the vicar, under whose auspices they were educated. On leaving the university, the former entered himself of the Inner Temple, but did not distinguish himself at the bar, until his abilities were employed upon the Douglas case; after which he became successively Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and Lord High Chancellor. He was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Thurlow, of Ashfield. In 1786, he was made Teller of the Exchequer, and created Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow: he retired in 1793, and died at Brighton in 1806. He was succeeded in the peerage by his nephew, the son of his brother, the Bishop of Durham. He was never married, but he left three illegitimate daughters, to two of whom he bequeathed large property; the other having offended him by an imprudent marriage, he left her only a small annuity. [Sidenote: The birth-place of Lord Chancellor Thurlow.] [D] ASHFORD. This village is frequently called Ashford in the water, from the lowness of its situation. It is seated on the banks of the river Wye. The only remains of the residence of the Plantagenets of Woodstock (who had a castle here) is a moat, half filled with rubbish. Sir William Cavendish, the favourite of Cardinal Wolsey, purchased this estate of the Earl of Westmoreland; and the Duke of Devonshire, a descendant of that family, still continues the proprietor. The works in this village for sawing and polishing marble, were the first ever established in England. They were originally constructed by Mr. Henry Watson, of Bakewell, about 80 years since, but though he obtained a patent, to secure the gain arising from this invention, the advantages were unequal to his expectations. Mr. John Platt, architect, of Rotherham, in Yorkshire, rented the quarries of black and grey marble, the only ones of the kind now worked in Derbyshire. The sweeping mill, as it is called, from its circular motion, will level a floor of eighty superficial feet of marble slabs at one time. [Sidenote: Extensive works for sawing and polishing marble.]