Ivinghoe in 1836

Ivinghoe is in Cotslow hundred, 33 m. N.W. of London just under the N.W. slope of the chalk range. It has a very small market on Saturday ; and two fairs, May 6th and October 17th. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome Gothic building. There is an ancient altar-tomb on the N. side of the chancel ; it has been disputed whether this was the tomb of Henry, bishop of Winchester, brother of King Stephen. The living is a vicarage, and was in the gift of the late earl of Bridgewater. The parish of Ivinghoe is extensive, and has several dependent hamlets : the population of the whole was, in 1831, 1,648. Berrysted house, in the parish, now a farm-house, is said to have been the seat of Henry, bishop of Winchester.

Some straw plat is made in Ivinghoe. The manor of Ivinghoe, according to tradition, once belonged to the family of Hampden ; but one of this family, having had a dispute with the Black Prince, was dispossessed of the manor either by way of fine or composition. The lines which embody the tradition are thus given by Gough in his Additions to Camden:

Hamden of Hamden did forego
The manors of Tring, Wing, and Ivinghoe,
Far striking the Black Prince a blow.

Messrs. Lysons have set aside this tradition, by finding that neither of these three manors was ever in the Hampden family.