DIRECTORY.] . CASTOR. ~1 CASTLE ASHBY (noticed in Domesday Book as the late marquess, to Eliza (Elliot), his wife, d. 4 "AsEBI ") is a parish and pleasant village seated on an Dec. 1877· The register dates from the year 1564. The eminence, 8 miles east-by-south from and living is a rectory, net yearly value £230, including 128 about 7 south from Wellmgborough, in the 1\fid division acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Marquess of the county, hundred of Wymersley, union of Harding- of Northampton, and held since 1898 by the Rev. Innes stone, Northampton petty sessional division and county Bourguine Wane M.A. of Clare College, Cambridge. court district, rural deanery of Preston (first portion), Burgess's charity consists of £IOo in Consols; the in­ archdeaconry of Northampton and diocese of Peter- terest is for distribution amongst the poor widows in borough. 'l'he Castle Ashby and Earls Barton station the parish. The Castle, the seat of the Marquess of on the Northampton and Peterborough branch of the Northampton, is charmingly seated on a broad gravel and North Western railway is 1! miles north of terrace overlooldng the valley of the Nene; it was the village and locally in Earls Barton. The church of begun between 1583 and 1589 and completed in 1624; St. Mary Magdalene, to the south of the castle, is an but the screen on the south front was added by Inigo edifice of stone, chiefly in the Decorated and Perpen- Jones about 6o years later; the whole building forms dicular styles, consisting of chancel, with north chapel, a quadrangle with two lofty octangular towers at the clerestoried nave of three bays, aisles, north and south north-east and south-west angles respectively; the porches and an embattled western tower containing south front, looking down the noble avenue which leads a clock and 5 bells: the north porch is Late Norman to the deer park, includes a series of extremely rich or Transitional work, with dog-tooth ornament, and has gates in the Italian style; the castle grounds are laid a parvise in which, according to a current tradition, out in a series of terraces, with sunk. gardens at various an old woman lived so late as 1624: the pulpit of oak levels, connected hy flights of steps : attached to the is an elaborate work of the Jacobean period: the chancel mansion are three undulating parks of much natural retains a double piscina with a stone shelf above it, beauty, with a total area of 645 acres; their pleasant and there is a remarkably fine brass to William slopes and irregular undulations, the fine trees and the Ermyn, rector, ob. 14oi, in a cope, the orphreys of beautiful ornamental water form an extremely attractive which are enriched with the figures of numerous saints and diversified scene ; the house is approached by four under canopies: the inscription and four shields, entrances, one of which is reached from the Yardley formerly at each corner of the slab, are lost: the east Hastings side through a grand avenue of trees, nearly window of the north chapel is filled with glass painted 4 miles long, commencing at Yardley Chase and inter­ by Lady Marian Alford, d. 1888 : on the floor of the secting the deer park: the house contains numerous chapel is a recumbent effigy of Purbeck marble, of a early and other valuable paintings, and the library corn­ knight in chain armour, cross-legged and wearing a prises several literary treasures. The Marquess of long surcoat, said to represent Sir David de Esseby, Northampton is lord of the manor and owns all the probably slain at the battle of Evesham, 4 Aug. 1265: land with the exception of the glebe. The soil is ·of a there are also several mural tablets to members of the fertile mixed character; subsoil, clay. The chief crops Compton family and others : in the north wall is a I are cereals. The area is about 1,944 acres of land and recumbent figure of Lady. Margaret (Compton),