2-982-394 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Moor Park, Surrey, 1858. 'This charming retreat, famous as the residence of Sir William Temple, and associated through him with an illustrious list of celebrities, lies in a richly-wooded valley...It was originally called Compton Hall, subsequently Moor Hall, and finally Moor Park. The estate, including moors, woods, and meadow-land, embraces about 460 acres, of which sixty are occupied by plantations and gardens immediately surrounding the house. The only alteration which appears to have been made in the estate from the earliest period consists in the modernisation of the pleasure-grounds; in all other respects it remains as it was in the sixteenth century...The first recorded possessor of Compton Hall was Sir Thomas Clarke, who died in 1633...the house and grounds were suffered to fall into decay; but about 1796 they were restored and improved by Mr. Tenison, a London merchant, who took Moor Park on a lease. He levelled the old terraces, drained the swamps between the river and the canal, which in the Dutch taste formed, and still continues to form, one of the ornaments of the grounds, and planted numerous fruit-trees, shrubs, and plantations'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.