Aske Hall, Richmond, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The estate was owned by the de Aske family in the medieval period and passed by marriage to the Bowes family around 1522. It passed to Sir Talbot Bowes in 1627 who sold it to his maternal uncle, Sir Thomas Wharton. The Whartons retained it until 1727 when it was sold to Sir Conyers D'Arcy for whom an undated estate map was drawn up at some point before his death in 1758. Another map dated 1761 was drawn up for Sir Conyers' heir Lord Holderness probably as a preliminary to the sale of the estate in 1763 to Sir Lawrence Dundas. Lancelot Brown (1716-83) was consulted by Dundas in about 1770 and a map of 1813 gives an indication of the executed scheme, though little is known about the contract and it is not possible to be certain that the changes in the landscape between 1761 and 1813 were necessarily to Brown's design. Dundas' son was created first Earl of Zetland in 1838, and after the death of the second Earl in 1873 it passed to a nephew, also Lawrence, who was created Marquess of Zetland in 1892. The estate continued in the family and remains in private ownership (1998).