Stowe, Buckinghamshire

Description
Stowe, a parish, with three hamlets, in Bucks, 2 3/4 miles NNW of Buckingham railway station. Post town and telegraph office, Dadford, under Buckingham; money order office, Shalstone. Acreage, 3045 of land and 43 of water; population, 311. The manor, with Stowe House, belongs to the Kinloss family. Stowe House is in the Grecian style, of centre and wings, with a frontage of 916 feet; is a magnificent structure, internally as well as externally; contains many fine apartments, an armoury with a valuable collection of arms and armour, a library with about 20,000 volumes, and many valuable portraits by Rubens, Vandyck, Lely, Kneller, Gainsborough, and others. It is distinguished both by its own architecture and by the decorations of its ornamental gardens, which extend to about 500 acres, and were laid out by the celebrated " Capability " Brown. The park extends to about 800 acres. The mansion was occupied for some years by the Comte de Paris, head of the royal house of France, and he died there in 1894. Boycott Manor House, a modern erection in the Tudor style, is the seat of the Higgins family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £122 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The church, which stands in the grounds of Stowe House, is a building of stone in mixed Gothic styles.