de Stadford, there being then one hide of land, containing 6 carucates, 16 acres of meadow, and a mill, with woods a mile long, and 3 quarters broad; all which was then valued at 50s. and had been the possessions of Odo, and Ulfric, before ye conquest. In ye next age, Hardulfe de Gastenois, (or Wastneys) was lord of it, from whome it came by descent to Sr Thomas de Wastneys, Kt, whose daughter and heir, Thomasine, brought it in marriage, Temp. R. 2. to Sr Nicholas de Greseley, of Drakelow, Kt. In 7. lac. Sr George Greisley Bart, aliened it to Sr Walter Aston, (then Kt. of ye Bath, but after Lord Aston of Forfare, in Scotland,) whose son, Waller, Lord Aston, Ao 1658, sold the scite of the manor house, and a great part of the demesnes, to William Chetwynd of Rugeley, Esq. most of ye tenements to ye several occupants, and ye rest, (with the Royalty and Advowson) to his brother, Herbert Aston, Esq. who had also other lands here by his father's gift, on which he built and resided, giving his house the name of Bellamour, in regard it was finished by ye benevolence and affection of his friends."
Had it not been for this MS. of Walter Chetwynd, the knowledge of this last curious fact, respecting the origin of Bellaraore, and its name, must have perished. It was totally unknown to my mother, and aunt, the last possessors of it, as well as to all the present descendants of the Aston family. These lines also, on the death of Mrs Katherine Aston, with the epitaph, and the verses and letter, at p. 273, would have been involved in considerable obscurity; in the "darkness visible," of uncertain conjecture, while they are now as clear as noon day. For it appears, that, while Herbert Aston, (for the reason assigned by Walter Chetwynd,) gave to his house, the foreign, and well-sounding name of "Bellamore," he at the same time gave his wife the name of "Good Love," which is the meaning of that same name, in English. It has been variously written: Bellamore, (which I prefer) from the Italian, Bel Amore, or Bellamour, from the French.
Herbert Aston's house, "founded on the rock Good Love," is still standing, but greatly altered, and now converted into offices. An elegant, and very commodious modern mansion, was built close by it, a few years ago, by my aunt, the late Honourable Dowager Lady Blount, and is now the property, and seat of Edward Blount, Esq. her second son.
Most willingly, would I here pour forth my mind, and heart, in an attempt to delineate the character of the late Dowager Lady Blount. But the limits I am
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