In days of yore, here Ampthill’s towers were seen,
  The mournful refuge of an injured queen;
  Here flowed her pure, but unavailing tears,
  Here blinded zeal sustained her sinking years. 
  Yet Freedom hence her radiant banner wav’d,
  And Love avenged a realm by priests enslav’d;
  From Catherine’s wrongs a nation’s bliss was spread,
  And Luther’s light from lawless Henry’s bed.

The possessors of Ampthill are thus traced by Mr. Parry:—­

The survey of Ampthill Park, made by order of Parliament, 1649, speaks of the castle as being long ago totally demolished.[1] There was, however, what was called the Great Lodge, or Capital Mansion.  King James I. gave the Honour of Ampthill to the Earl of Kelly.  It soon reverted to the Crown.  In 1612, Thomas, Lord Fenton, and Elizabeth his wife, resigned the office of High Steward of the Honour of Ampthill to the King.  The following year the custody of the Great Park was granted to Lord Bruce, whose family became lessees of the Honour, which they kept till 1738.  In the 17th century, the Nicholls’s became lessees of the Great Park under the Bruces, who reserved the office of Master of the Game.  The Nicholls’s resided at the Capital Mansion.  After the Restoration, Ampthill Great Park was granted by Charles II. to Mr. John Ashburnham, as some reward for his distinguished services to his father and himself (vide Hist.  Eng.) The first Lord Ashburnham built the present house, in 1694.  In 1720 it was purchased of this family by Viscount Fitzwilliam, who sold it in 1736 to Lady Gowran, grandmother of the late Lord Ossory, who in 1800, became possessed of the lease of the Honour, by exchange with the Duke of Bedford.  His family name, an ancient one in Ireland, was Fitzpatrick; he was Earl of Upper Ossory in Ireland, and Baron of the same in England.  He died in 1818, and was succeeded by Lord Holland, the present possessor, who has also a fine old mansion at Kensington.[2]

    [1] In Peck’s “Desiderata Curiosa,” is a list of salaries paid
        in Queen Elizabeth’s time to the Keepers, &c. of all the Royal
        Palaces and Castles.  At Ampthill they were as follow:  Keeper of
        the Manor House, 2l. 13s. 4d., Great Park, 4l., with herbage and
        pannage, 15l.; Paler of the Park, 4l. 11s. 4d., herbage and
        pannage, 15l.

    [2] For an Engraving of which see the Mirror, vol. xiii. p.
        385.

The present Lord Holland, Henry Richard Vassal Fox, Baron Holland of Holland Co.  Lincoln, and Foxley, Co.  Wilts, Recorder of Nottingham, F.R.S.A.; was born November 23, 1773, succeeded to the title in 1774; married, 1797, Elizabeth, a daughter of Richard Vassal, Esq.

* * * * *

CHARACTER OF A GOOD ALBUM.

(For the Mirror.)

    —­“Here’s a gem of beauty! 
  It sparkles with a pure and virgin lustre,
  And many prize it much.”