HARTWELL, a parish in Aylesbury district, Bucks; 2 miles SW of Aylesbury r. station. It includes part of the hamlet of Sedrup; and its post town is Aylesbury. Acres, 680. Real property, £2, 3 45. Pop., 137. Houses, 28. The property is owned by J. Lee, Esq. The manor belonged to the De Hertwells, the Lutons, the Stokeses, the Singletons, and the Hampdens; and passed, in the 14th tury, to the Lees. Hartwell House is an old edifice, considerably modernized; was the residence, in 1810-14, of Louis XVIII. and his family; usually, with the out buildings, accommodated about 140 persons during the time of Louis's residence; is hid from the view of persons on the high road, by a screen of superb trees; contains many memorials of Louis's family, and of distinguished persons who visited them; and contains also a museum, a fine geological collection, a large quantity of manuscripts, and some interesting pictures. A history of it, by Admiral Smyth, fills two large 4to vols., entitled " Ædes Hartwellianæ." he geology of the parish and its neighbourhoods very rich. There are also several springs; and over one of them is an Egyptian temple, recently erected, after a design by Bonomi. The living is a rectory, united with the p. curacy of Little Hampden, in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £226. * Patron, the Royal Astronomical Society of London. The church was built in 1756; is octagonal, on the model of the charter House at York; has two squaee towers; and bears, in the east window, the arms of the Hampdens, the Lees, and the Harcourts. The only charity is the interest of £100 given by Louis XVIII.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))