BLACKHEATH HUNDRED
��ALBURY
��including peeps of the little Tillingbourne stream and of the lake before the house, with its swans ; the half- ruined ancient church, almost hidden by its stately cedars, and the house make this park, though its area is but small, one of the loveliest in Surrey. The gardens also merit the praise bestowed on them by William Cobbett : 'Take it altogether,' he says, 'this certainly is the prettiest garden I ever beheld. There was taste and sound judgment at every step in the laying out of this place.' The famous John Evelyn, in 1667, at the request of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk, 'designed the plot of the canal and garden, with a crypt through the hill.' Although the canal has been drained, a terrace of beautiful green sward, about a quarter of a mile in length, remains, together with the ' crypt,' and a wonderful yew hedge, ' or rather,' as Cobbett writes, 'a row of small yew trees, the trunks of which are bare for about 8 or I o ft. high, and the tops of which form one solid head of about I oft. high, while the bottom branches come out on each side of the row about 8 ft. horizontally. This hedge or row,' he adds, ' is a quarter of a mile long. There is a nice, hard sand road under this species of umbrella ; and summer and winter, here is a most delightful walk.' '
The Catholic Apostolic Church, close to Albury Park, is a cruciform building, with a western tower and an octagonal chapter-house, designed in a starved imitation of late I 5th-century architecture, and built about 1 840 by Mr. Drummond. Immediately oppo- site, on the south side, is a fine old timber-framed house, with square and circle patterns in its main gable, moulded barge-boards, projecting upper stories and mullioned windows, recalling the design of Great Tangley, in Wonersh parish, a few miles to the west. This was no doubt an important house at one time. In and around Albury are many half-timber cottages and houses, as at Madgehole, Jelleys, Colman's Hol- low, Mayor House Farm, and Shophouse Farm. 4 Pit House is another ancient house with an old roof not far from the site of a Roman settlement. Many years ago there was in Albury village an important house called Weston House after the ancient family of that name, who held the manor for centuries. Its stair- case, of Spanish mahogany, was re-erected in the County Club at Guildford. This was at the west end of Weston Street, and is not to be confused with Weston House, still standing, at the east end.
Weston House, in Weston Street, is the seat of Mr. W. W. Wright ; Weston Lodge, of Colonel Martindale ; Dalton Hill, of Colonel Malthus.
Albury has had several distinguished residents. William Oughtred, the famous mathematician of his day, was rector from 1610 to 1 660, holding the pre- ferment through the Civil War time till he died in
��possession a month after the Restoration. Samuel Horsley, afterwards Bishop of Rochester and of St. Asaph, was rector 1 77480. The Rev. Edward Irving resided a good deal in the parish when the Catholic Apostolic Church was being founded. Mr. Martin Tupper was a resident till a few years before his death, and composed his once-famous Proverbial Philosophy here. The scene of his romance, Stephen Langton, is laid in the neighbourhood, but embodies no real local history.
The history of ALBVRT M4NOR MANORS before the Conquest is obscure. It is quite uncertain whether the two 'mansae' in Albury, held by Chertsey before the Conquest, and attributed (falsely) to the grant of Frithwald of the 7th century,' were part of their East Clandon Manor reaching into this parish or at one of the two other places in Surrey called ' Aldeberie.'
In Domesday it appears that Azor held it of the Con- fessor, and it was granted after the Conquest to Richard de Tonbridge, ancestor of the de Clares and their de- scendants, 6 in whom the overlordship was vested till it lapsed in the 1 6th century. 7 Roger D'Abernon was tenant under Richard, 8 and his descendants were lords of the manor for more than five centuries. 9 In the i 3th century 10 it formed the dower of Joan widow of Ingram D'Abernon. John D'Abernon obtained a grant of free warren here in 1253." The manor passed with Eliza- beth daughter and co-heir of William D'Abernon, who died in 1359, to the Croyser fami- ly," and through Elizabeth's granddaughter Anne to Henry Norbury." From them it de- scended to Joan wife of Sir Urian Brereton," who con- veyed it in 1550-1 to Henry
Foisted and his wife Alice in consideration of an annuity to Joan and her heirs. 15 The manor was so settled that after the death of Alice, who survived her husband, it remained to Vincent, son and heir of Edward Randall. 16 His estates descended to Sir Edward Randall of Edlesborough, Buckinghamshire," who sold the manor in 1633-4 to J onn Gresham of Fulham. 18 In 1638 John Gresham and George Dun- combe conveyed it to the trustees of Thomas, Earl of Arundel. 19 After some delay, owing to the se- questration of the earl's estates," during which time George Duncombe resumed possession and held courts, Mr. Henry Howard paid the purchase money to the Duncombes before 1655," and acquired Albury. He was grandson to the Earl of Arundel, and later succeeded as Duke of Norfolk. He conveyed it to trustees for sale in 1 680." It was purchased by
���D'ABERNON.
a cAeveron or.
��Azure
��' Cobbett, Rural Walks and Rides.
- Old Cottages and Domestic Architecture
in South-'west Surr. (2nd ed.), 91.
4 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 39.
- y.C.H.Surr.i, 3193.
^ Excirpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 272 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68 ; ibid. 3 Hen. V, no. 37 ; ibid. (Ser. 2), cclxxiii, 99.
8 V.C.H.Surr.\, 3190.
- The detailed history is coincident with
that of Stoke D'Abernon (q.v.).
" Add. Chart. (B.M.), 5562. 11 Cat. of Chart. R. i, 435.
��11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Ric. II, no. 108.
Feet of F. Div. Co. 14 Hen. VI, 184; Add. Chart. (B.M.), 5618.
" See account of the family under Stoke D'Abernon.
15 Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 3 Edw. VI. The annuity descended to Joan's daughters, Mary wife of Sir Robert Peckham, and Anne wife of Sir George Cobham. The latter's son, Sir John Cobham, forfeited his share to the Crown. James I granted it to Sir Edward Randall, then lord of Albury, and to others ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxix, 40 ; Pat. 3 Jas. I, pt. xxr.
73
��18 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxci, 78 ; Chan. Proc. Eliz. R r, x, 54.
11 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclxxiii, 99.
18 Close, 9 Chas. I, pt. xli, no. 1 1 8. Gresham mortgaged it immediately to George Duncombe of Albury ; Close, 10 Chas. I, pt. xxviii, m. 33.
Feet of F. Surr. Mil. 13 Chan. I.
80 Cal. of Com. for Compounding iv, 2471.
u Evelyn's Diary, 10 Aug. 1655 ; cf. 19 June 1662.
m Close, 32 Chas. II, pt. xiv, no. 10.
10
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