Tring Park Mansion
The Manor of Tring is first mentioned in the Domesday Book where it is referred to as "Treunge" and was owned by Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, a countryman of William the Conqueror.
In 1148 King Stephen and Queen Matilda founded the Cluniac order of St Saviour at Faversham in Kent and the Manor of Tring was presented to the abbey.
Guy was sent to the Tower of London soon after William III and Mary II acceded to the throne in the Glorious Revolution in 1688 on account of his misappropriation of Treasury funds.
It was Charles Gore who was responsible for diverting the main Aylesbury to Berkhamsted road from its existing course through the park, which took it straight past the front door of the mansion, to its present route, following considerably flatter terrain further north along the course of what has now become Tring High Street.
The contours of the parklands were smoothed and flattened to present a more naturalistic outlook in keeping with the style of Capability Brown that was in vogue at the time and the interior of the house was extensively remodelled along the entire south range of reception rooms with the exception of the library, which retained its seventeenth century ceiling.
[1] When the Kays decided to sell in 1872, Baron Lionel de Rothschild bought Tring Park and its 3,643 acres (14.74 km2), which also included the manors of Miswell, Hastoe, Dunsley and Willstone for £230,000 – this equates to about £8,000,000 in today's money.
Lady Rothschild preferred to remain at Tring with her children throughout much of the year and quite often her husband would be on his own at the sprawling London residence, surrounded by dust-sheeted furniture.
The east front was rebuilt with a shallow bow window rising through all three floors and the former entrance hall enclosed by large glass doors at the first set of columns to form another reception room.
In 1908 this was an indescribably large amount and by the time of his father's death in 1915, Walter's finances were well in hand and he was able to mount overseas expeditions to locate new and exotic specimens as well as to purchase existing collections wholesale.
The museum's displays included two-and-a-half million butterflies, set under glass, over three hundred thousand bird skins and copious specimens of mammals and reptiles.
As a result of Walter's zoological pursuits, Tring Park housed not only his well-known zebras but also emus, rheas and kangaroos, which roamed wild in the parklands.
The kangaroos, with total disregard for the ha-ha separating the park from the grounds, would jump up and spend time roaming around the lawns, digging up and eating the flowers in the formal beds around the drawing room terrace.
Three years later, after the end of World War I, the family donated the house's lily pond and immediate grounds to the townspeople of Tring and it became the Memorial Gardens.
Once it became evident that Walter would not marry, Lady Rothschild sold her dower house, Champneys near Wigginton (a little over 1 mile/1.7 km east of Tring Park Mansion), in 1923.
