Bramham Park, Yorkshire;

THE RESIDENCE OF

GEORGE LANE FOX, ESQ. M.P.

THIS noble Residence was built in the reign of Queen Anne, by Robert Benson, Lord Bingley, who employed for that purpose an Italian architect. It is designed upon a scale of much grandeur, consisting of a large centre, in which are the grand apartments, and wings, for the domestic offices, connected by corridors of the Doric order; the whole fronting a spacious Court, elevated five feet above the Park, approached by iron gates affixed to dwarf piers, bearing sphinxes, which occupy a space within two lofty rusticated columns, each surmounted by a Bear upholding the shield of arms of the founder. The mansion presents a magnificent and singular character, seldom paralleled in the form and dimensions of the truly elegant apartments it contains; some of them decorated with the rich and tasteful carvings of Grinlin Gibbons, others are hung with curious specimens of tapestry, in excellent preservation; also the following pictures : A fine original portrait of Queen Anne, presented by her Majesty to Lord Bingley, as an acknowledgment of the attention of his Lordship during a visit to this Seat. Portraits of the present Lord Rivers in his robes; and of the late Lord Rivers on horseback, Horace Beckford, Esq., Lord Ligonier, the present Earl of Lonsdale, Lady Bridget Lane, a Lady Sackville, by Sir P. Lely, Mr. G. Fox, as Major of the Yorkshire Yeomanry, the last Lord and Lady Bingley, taken after their embassy to Italy, and a very interesting portrait of Mrs. George Lane Fox, just finished by G. Hayter. In the Chapel adjoining the house are the effigies of the ancestors of the family. Here the service is performed regularly every Sunday.

The Gardens correspond in their style with the House, and consist of fine timber cut in straight hedges of the height of the trees, the whole kept up with the greatest precision, and are said to resemble those of St. Cloud, in France : gravelled walks extend for miles through the Pleasure Grounds; the Deer Park is finely wooded, and the Views are rich in beautiful scenery. Very handsome Kennels for the fox-hounds are at one extremity of the Park; the Kennels for the harriers are near the House. It stands in a fine sporting country, and his present Majesty once spent two nights at this venerable mansion, and partook of the delights of the chase. The House is situated in Barkstone Ash wapentake, ten miles north-east from Leeds, four miles south-west from Tadcaster, and fourteen miles from York.

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A little farther south-west is Bramham Moor, on which are very conspicuous remains of the Roman Road called Watling-street. On February 17, 1408, a battle was fought on this Moor, between the posse comitatus of Yorkshire, commanded by Sir Thomas Rokeby, then sheriff of the county, and a rebel army under the command of the Earl of Northumberland. In this battle the Abbot of Hales and the Bishop of Bangor were made prisoners, the former of whom was hanged, being taken in armour; the Earl of Northumberland was slain in the field, Lord Bardolfe, the second in command under the Earl, being severely wounded, died shortly after. This estate was a grant from the Crown in the reign of King William and Queen Mary, and was the first enclosure on Bramham Moor. It was cultivated and planted by the father of the first Lord Bingley, who afterwards erected the present noble edifice.

Robert Benson, Esq. was one of the Commissioners of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the reign of Queen Anne, and on resigning his high office, her Majesty was pleased to advance him to the dignity of the Peerage by letters patent, dated July 21, 1713, by the title of Baron Bingley. His Lordship married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Heneage Finch, first Earl of Ailesford, and dying in 1730, left an only daughter, Harriot, who married, in 1731, George Fox Lane, Esq. who was created Lord Bingley, May 4, 1762. His Lordship was Ambassador at Vienna, being a great politician; he headed the Tory party in Yorkshire, where he was much beloved and respected. He died at the age of 85, leaving considerable wealth, and bequeathing great annuities to the Corporation of York, for which city he sat in parliament twice, and of which he was twice Lord Mayor. He also sat, when Mr. Fox, for the county of York. His uncle, Lord Lanesborough, having left him large possessions in Ireland, he afterwards added the name of Lane. At his Lordship's death his title became extinct; his only nephew, the present proprietor, inherited his estate. Mr. Fox Lane passed much of his early life on the Continent. He was a gentleman of the most polished manners, and highly esteemed for his liberality and generosity as a proof of the interest he excited in the county, it may be mentioned that, during his last illness, the press at Leeds was stopped, to give the earliest intelligence of the state of his health. He married the Honourable Marcia Pitt, by whom he had Marcia, married to Lord Stourton. George Fox Lane, Esq. M.P. married in 1815, to Georgiana Henrietta, only daughter of the Honourable Edward Percy Bulkeley and the Right Honourable Lady Georgiana Bulkeley, grand-daughter to Earl De la War; his son, William, a Captain in the Guards, married Caroline, daughter of Lord Morton, and grand-daughter to the Earl of Harewood; there are also other children.