Nuneham Park.

Nuneham Park is well known to every Oxonian, beautifully situated as it is on the bank of the classic Isis, some three or four miles from the ever famous University of Oxford, my own Alma Mater.

The adjoining parish of Stanton Harcourt was in the ownership of the noble family of Harcourt,—now represented by a branch of the equally noble one of Vernon,—for more than six hundred years. It was afterwards left by them for the more attractive situation of Nuneham Courtenay.

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The accounts of the descent of each of the two great houses, now represented by that of Vernon-Harcourt, furnish such an embârras de richesse that a mere outline is all that can here be given of the successive representatives of the family, as follows:—

William de Vernon, proprietor of Vernon, in Normandy, in 1052.

Richard de Vernon, came into England with the Conqueror. Ninth in descent from him was

Sir Richard de Vernon, Knight, who married Matilda, daughter aud coheh’ess of Sir William Carnville, Lord of Clifton Camville and Aston.

Sir William de Vernon, Knight, born 1312, married Margaret, daughter of Robert, Baron de Stafford.

Sir Richard de Vernon, Knight, of Haddon and Harlestou, married to Juliana, daughter of Robert, or Roger, de Pembruge.

Sir Richard de Vernon, Knight, of Haddon and Harlestou, born 1370, married Johanna, second daughter and heiress of Richard Stackpole.

Sir Richard Vernon, Knight, born 1394, married Benedicta, daughter of Sir John Ludlowe. He was Speaker of the Parliament held at Leicester in 1425, and Treasurer of Calais. He died 1451.

Sir William de Vernon, Knight, Knight-Constable of England, born 1416, married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir William Swynfen, Knight. She was also heiress of Robert Pype.

Sir Henry Vernon, Knight, Lord of Haddon, etc., etc., Governor and Treasurer to Prince Arthur, eldest son of King Henry VII. He married Anne, daughter of John, second Earl of Shrewsbury.

Humphrey Vernon, Esq., married Alice, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Ludlow, of Hodnet, Shropshire.

Thomas Vernon, Esq., the second son, married Helena, daughter of Ralph Shirley.

Walter Vernon, Esq., of Houndshill, born in 1552, married Mary, daughter of Edward Littleton, Esq., of Pillaton, Staffordshire.

Sir Edward Vernon, Knight, born in 1584, married, in 1613, Margaret, daughter and sole heiress of Henry Vernon, Esq., of Hilton and Essington, Staffordshire.

Sir Henry Vernon, married Muriel, daughter and heiress of Sir George Vernon, of Haslington, Judge of the Common Pleas.

George Vernon, Esq., of Sudbury, born iu 1635, married, first, to Margaret, daughter of Edwin Onely, Esq., of Catesby, Northamptonshire; secondly, Dorothy Shirley, sister of Robert, Earl Ferrers; and thirdly, Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon, Merchant, of London.

Henry Vernon, Esq., of Sudbury, M.P. for Staffordshire, married, first, to Anne, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Pigott, Esq., of Chetwynd, Staffordshire, and secondly, Matilda, daughter of Thomas Wright, Esq., of Longstone, Derbyshire.

George Vernon, Esq., of Sudbury, who assumed the additional surname and arms of Venables, in 1728, on inheriting the estates of his maternal ancestors, and was raised to the Peerage as Lord Vernon, Baron of Kinderton, in the county of Chester. His Lordship married, first, in 1733, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Thomas, sixth Lord Howard of Effingham, and had a son, the Hon. George Vernon, successor to the title. He married, secondly, in 1741, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Lee, Bart., of Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, but had no issue. He married, thirdly, in 1747, Martha, daughter of the Hon. Simon Harcourt, grand-daughter of Viscount Harcourt, Lord Chancellor, and had, with a son, the Hon. Henry Vernon, successor to the Barony, a second son,

The Hon. and Most Reverend Edward Venables Vernon, D.D., Lord Archbishop of York, born October 10th., 1757, who, on succeeding to the Harcourt estates, assumed the further surname of Harcourt, and became of Nuneham Courtenay. HisGracemarried, February 5th., 1784, the Hon. Anne Leveson Gower, daughter of Granville Leveson Gower, first Marquis of Stafford, (ancestor of the Dukes of Sutherland). He had a large family, and was succeeded in the estates by his eldest son,

George Granville Harcourt, Esq., of Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, M.P. for that County, born in 1785, married, first, March 27th., 1815, the Hon. Elizabeth Bingham, eldest daughter of Richard, second Earl of Lucan, and secondly, September 30th., 1847, Frances Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, and daughter of John Braliam, Esq. The third son, (the second having died without an heir),

The Rev. William Vernon-Harcourt, Canon of York, born iu 1789, married, July 11th., 1824, Matilda Mary, daughter of Colonel William Gooch, and died in April, 1871, his elder son being

Edward William Harcourt, Esq., of Nuneham Courtenay and Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, M.P. for the County, born June 26th., 1825, married, June 26th., 1849, to Lady Susan Harriet Holroyd, only daughter of George Augustus Frederick Charles Holroyd, second Earl of Sheffield, and had a son,

Aubrey Harcourt, Esq., J.P. for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, born August 16th., 1852.