18 FEBRUARY 1888, Page 22

A History of the Vyne, in Hamp , .hire. By Chaloner W.

Chute. (Jacob and Johnson, Winchester.)—It is pleasant to find the owner of a historic house sensible of the "honour to which be is born." There are some very undesirable examples of a very different feeling. The Vyne occupies, it is thought, the site of the ancient Vindomis,— and, indeed, very probably represents the old name. The families of De Port, St. John, Cowdray, and Sandys successively owned the pro- perty, the last of them being the most important. In the seventeenth century, the Vyne came into the possession of Chaloner Chute, Speaker of the House of Commons, an eminent barrister of the time. He defended the House of Convocation on the occasion of the issue of the Canon of 1641, and he was one of the counsel assigned to Archbishop Laud in 1643. He seems to have become possessor of the Vyne in 1649 (the name of the house is to be found, curiously enough, in the map of England which forms the obverse of the " Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England "). He died just before the Restoration. His son died at an early age, as did his eldest grandson. The second son, Edward, and his successor, Antony, were not people of much note. Bat John Chute (1701-1776) was the friend of Gray and Horace Walpole. From him the Vyne passed into the female line. William John, who succeeded to the property in 1780, kept the pack of fox-hounds till his death, thirty-four years afterwards. The estate passed again through the female line, to the father of the present owner. The seventh and concluding chapter is devoted to a description of the house. If Mr. Chute had added a pedigree of his family, he would have done well.