Ampthill, in the hundred of Redbornstoke, in Bedfordshire. In 1441, William Beauchamp, Lord St. Amand, possessed it in right of his wife, and sold it to Sir John Cornwall Lord Fanhope, one of the heroes of Agincourt, and who, according to "Leland, builded the castelle of Antehill of such spoils as it is said he won in France." In 1453 Henry Duke of Exeter, son of Fanhope's wife, by her first husband, entered into a bond of 6000 marks to abide by the arbitration of Sir Thomas Bourchier respecting the manor of Ampthill and some other estates. In 1524, Roger de Grey Earl of Kent, alienated it to the Crown. It was made an honor by act of Parliament, the preamble to which states, that it was Henry the Eighth's intention "to erect, build, and edifie upon his grace's manor of Ampthill, sumptuous, stately, beautiful, and princely buildings." Ampthill has derived a mournful interest from its having been the residence of the unhappy Katherine, during the early part of the proceedings relative to her divorce, and she was cited from thence to attend the Commissioners at Dunstable. Henry was evidently at Ampthill in August 1530, September 1531, and July 1532. Mr. Lysons, says, no account of the manor is to be found during several subsequent reigns. The palace was allowed to go to decay. James the First bestowed the honor on the Earl of Kelly, but it soon reverted to the Crown. The custody of the Great Park was granted to Lord Bruce in 1613, and his descendants became lessees of it, in whom it continued until 1738, when the lease was purchased by the Duke of Bedford, and it was exchanged in 1800 to the late Earl of Upper Ossory. In the 17th century a family of Nicholls were lessees of Ampthill Great Park, and after the Restoration it was given by Charles the Second to Mr. John Ashburnham. In 1720, his descendants sold it to Lord Fitz-William, from whom it was purchased, in 1736, by Lady Gowran, grandmother of its late owner, the Earl of Upper Ossory, who died in 1818. That nobleman erected a column, in 1770, on the scite of Ampthill castle, upon which are inscribed the following beautiful lines by Horace Walpole. "In days of yore here Ampthill's towers were seen, The mournful refuge of an injur'd queen; Here flow'd her pure but unavailing tears, Here blinded zeal sustain'd her sinking years; Yet freedom hence her radiant banners wav'd, And love aveng'd a realm by priests enslav'd. From Katherine's wrongs a nation's bliss was spread, And Luther's light from Henry's lawless bed." _Lysons' Bedfordshire._ Apothecary, Sergeant, to the, 79, 146. One of these entries is curious, as the Sergeant Apothecary appears to have brought some gloves to the king. They were probably _perfumed_ gloves.