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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. xii. SEPT. is, 1915.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION W ANTED. r- I should be glad to learn further information about the following persons: (1) Charles West, who graduated M.D. at Cambridge from Trin. Coll., 1728. (2) Johnson West, who was admitted on the foundation at Westminster in 1760, aged 14. (3) John Wheeler, son of Edmund W T heeler of Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire, who gradu- ated M.D. at Oxford from Ch. Ch., 1718, and was still a Faculty Student there in 1738. (4) Thomas Whinyates, Rector of Charleton, Devon, 1742. (5) Blaze White, Rector of St. George's, Canterbury, 1661-6, and of Stonar in the Isle of Thanet, 1663. (6) John White, admitted to the Inner Temple, 1700. (7) Michael White, who was admitted on the foundation at West- minster in 1695, and left the school 1700. (8) John Whitfield, son of Joseph Whitfield of Newbury, Bucks, who was admitted on the foundation at Westminster 1744. G. F. R. B.

WANSTEAD ^JP ARK. (11 S. xii. 121, 164.)

UNDER the Bishops of London the Manor of Wanstead was held by the families of Hodon and Huntercombe, who were suc- ceeded by those of Tattershall, Hastings De Ploise, and Heron. But Giles, son oJ Sir John Heron, was forced to give it up to Henry VIII. in consequence of a.'refusa to acknowledge the King's supremacy in the Church. In 1549 King Edward VI. or his tutors, granted this and other pos sessions to Robert, Lord Rich, and his heirs. Lord Rich built the Wanstead Manor House, then called Naked Hal Ha. we. In 1557 Robert, his son and sue cessor, alienated this Lordship to Rober Dudley, the great Earl of Leicester, wh( resided there, and in May, 1578, he enter tained Queen Elizabeth for several days After his death his widow married Si Christopher Blount. The great Earl bein^ deeply in debt at the time of his death, an inventory was taken of his property, an by this it appears that the furniture, library horses, &c., at Wanstead were valued a 1,119Z. 6s. 6d. The pictures were estimate at no more than III. 13s. 4d., althougl among them were three portraits o Henry VIII., and one each of Queens Marj and Elizabeth, Lady Rich, and thirty-si other personages. The library did Dudle

o credit. It consisted of one old Bible, 'oxe's ' Book of Martyrs ' (old and torn), even Psalters, and a Service Book valued t 13s. 8d. On the other hand, it cost ,OOOZ. to bury this great Earl.

After the death of Sir Christopher Blount, he Manor of Wanstead came to Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire, and, when he ied in 1606 without heirs, it came again o the Crown. By one of the Blounts it had >een alienated to Sir George Carew ; but, in 640, Sir Henry Mildmay, Master of the ewel Office under King James I. and

ing Charles I., purchased this Manor of

Wanstead. After being again in the Crown,

,nd in the possession of the Duke of York

afterwards King James II.) subsequent to

he Restoration, it came by purchase to

Sir Josiah Child.

The Georgian Wanstead House was a eery magnificent structure, erected near the site of the more ancient mansion. It was ilt by the celebrated Colin Campbell about the year 1715 for Sir Richard Child, Bart., son of Sir Josiah Child, who was a merchant prince of London. The principal Front of this " palace " was 260 feet in length. It consisted of two stories, a basement and the state story, and it was adorned by a noble portico of Corinthian columns. In the tympanum of the portico were the arms of the Tylney family, for by this time Sir Richard Child had blossomed into the Earl Tylney, and was a large land- owner in various parts of Essex. When the second Earl Tylney died in 1784 this manor, with other large estates, passed to his nephew, Sir James Tylney Long, Bt., of Draycot, in Wiltshire. His only son James eventu- ally succeeded to the title and inheritance, but during his minority the great Wanstead House was appropriated as the residence of the Prince of Conde and his following until the return of the French Royal princes to Paris in 1814. Miss Tylney Long, the next heiress to the great estate, occupisd the mansion when she came of age. Her marriage with Mr. Wellesley Pole is a famous episode in English social history, and it attracted the attention of many literary men, including Tom Hood, who was a dweller in the immediate neighbourhood of Wan- stead Park. Mr. Wellesley Pole, it may be mentioned, made a very bad start at Wan- stead by attempting to shut up the public way through the Park. This was success- fully resisted at a trial at Chelmsford Assizes in 1813.

The gardens and pleasure grounds were laid out by Sir Richard Child before the