Ardeley Bury, in the days of Sir Henry Chauncy, was an Elizabethan manor-house dating from about the year 1580, surrounded by a moat; it was almost entirely rebuilt of brick in 1815-20, when it became a castellated, imposing mansion.  The manor of Erdeley was owned by a succession of Saxon kings until Athelstan bestowed it upon the church of St. Paul, London, as recorded in Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum; it was of the Dean and Chapter that the Chauncys rented their estate.  The river Beane rises near here.  A stroll around Ardeley and Ardeley Bury leads the visitor into some of the quietest spots to be found in the county.  The windmill on the hill above Cromer, near by, is useful as a landmark when threading the many winding lanes in the neighbourhood.

ARKLEY (1 mile W. from High Barnet) consists chiefly of a few small houses at a spot once called Barnet Common.  The view is extensive in every direction, the village (strictly speaking the chapelry) lying on high ground.  The chapel of St. Peter was erected in 1840, the style being a variety of Low Gothic; a chancel (E.E.) was added in 1898, and has a good groined roof.

ASH, river; see Introduction, Section VI.

Ashbrook consists of a few cottages and a beer-shop, 1 mile N.E. from St. Ippollit’s village, and midway between Hitchin and Stevenage Stations, G.N.R.

[Illustration:  ASHRIDGE HOUSE]

ASHRIDGE is in a beautifully undulating district, immediately N. of Berkhampstead Common, 1 mile E. from Aldbury Church and about 2 miles E. from Tring Station, L.&N.W.R.  The present house, the seat of Earl Brownlow, stands in a park of about 1,000 acres, well known for the deer which are kept there; it was built by the first Earl of Bridgewater, or rather by his architect, Wyatt, in 1808-14.  It is a huge structure, its greatest width being 1,000 feet; conspicuous portions are the turreted centre, some good arched doorways and the large Gothic porch.  The site was formerly occupied by the palace of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Cornwall, and by the monastery which he built, adjoining the palace, for the monks of the Order of Bonhommes, an Order which he himself brought to this country from France.  The earl died here, but his bones were subsequently removed to Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire.  The house contains some fine pictures, including, in addition to works by modern masters, Rubens’ “Death of Hippolytus,” Luini’s “Holy Family” and Titian’s “Three Caesars”.  In the chapel is a fine brass to John Swynstede, Prebendary of Lincoln, 1395.  It was brought here from Edlesborough Church.