Capability Brown and the Ashridge Estate (1761-68)

Interesting historical records can turn up anywhere - and more and more are ending up on specialist web sites. The above account book entry relates to the Duke of Bridgewater's account when Capability Brown was laying out the Ashridge Estate. You may read the account book on the Royal Horticultural Society's web site. 

More About Ashridge

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Rural Relaxation - Mallard Ducks at Ashridge

Mallard Ducks in Clickmere Pond close to the Bridgewater Monument, on the National Trust Ashridge Estate. The pond is a former dew pond - and originally there were a number in the area, probably built for the cattle on the drove roads that crossed the Chiltern Hills.

The Bridgewater Monument about 100 years ago.

In the past, when I still had Franci, I would walk on parts of the Ashridge Estate once or twice a week, often stopping off at the Brownlow Cafe, about 100 yards of the monument. Now that I no longer have a dog I still visit, but now only about once a month, and often take pictures of the pond to record how it changes through the year, and from year to year.

Clickmere Pond in February 2010

Ashridge House in the late 18th century.

Ashridge

This print of Ashridge Abbey, publisher details unknown, is probably from about 1780, and corresponds in shape with the house shown on Dury and Andrews Map of Hertfordshire in 1766. The current house is the result of a rebuild by the Duke of Bridgewater in the first years of the 19th century. The map shows the house actually lay across the Herts/Bucks county boundary.