The Manor of Ebury lay between the other two manors, and comprised the district now known as Belgravia and Pimlico. It never was historically famous, but it helped to swell the coffers of the Grosvenors, especially that of the present Duke of Westminster and his father, for the manor (of 430 acres) then called Eabury or Ebury Farm came into the possession, in 1656, of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, who married the daughter and sole heiress of Alexander Davies, Esq., of Ebury Farm, who never could have contemplated the princely fortune he was leaving to her descendants. Once only do we hear anything particular of the Manor of Ebury, and that is in connection with Queen Elizabeth.[10] “That _Ebery Farm_, containing 430 Acres, Meadow and Pasture, which was holden of her Majesty by lease, was granted to one _Whashe_, who paid £21 _per Ann._ And the same was let to divers Persons, who, for their private Commodity, did enclose the same, and had made Pastures of Errable Land; thereby not only annoying her Majesty in her Walks and Passages, but to the hindrance to her Game, and great Injury to the Common, which, at _Lammas_, was wont to be laid open, for the most Part; as by ancient Precedents thereof made, do particularly appear, both in the Time of _Henry the Eighth_, _Edward the Sixth_, and _Queen Mary_. And by the Grant made from her Majesty to the new tenants, it appeareth, that they are to enjoy the same lands in such sort as their predecessors did, which was then always _Lammas_ ground, and now enclosed about 20 years past.” At least this was the plea of those who broke down the fences, etc., in 1592. “The Parishioners, having, as they supposed, that Lord’s[11] Countenance, sent divers Persons on the 1 of _August_, being _Lammas day_, who, with Pickaxes, and such like Instruments, pulled down the Fences, and brake the Gates, having with them the Bailiffs and Constables, to keep the Peace.” The Manor of Neate lay alongside the river Thames, and although we have seen that the old moated mansion was of some importance, still, at the time of the above dispute (in which it shared with the neighbouring manor), it was only termed _a farm_, the house and all the ground around it having been granted by Edward VI. to Sir Anthony Brown; still the name of the manor was perpetuated in the “Neat Houses”--which were places of rural entertainment, and which Strype (Book vi. p. 67) describes: “The _Neat Houses_ are a Parcel of Houses, most seated on the Banks of the River _Thames_, and inhabited by Gardiners; for which it is of Note, for the supplying _London_ and _Westminster_ Markets with _Asparagus_, _Artichoaks_, _Cauliflowers_, _Musmelons_, and the like useful Things that the Earth produceth; which, by reason of their keeping the Ground so rich by dunging it (and through the nearness to _London_, they have the Soil cheap), doth make their crops very forward, to their great Profit in coming to such good Markets.”