Burley

"BURLEY, a parish in the hundred of ALSTOE, county of RUTLAND, 2 miles (N. E. by N.) from Oakham, containing 222 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese of Peterborough/ rated in the king's books at £10. 13. 1½., in the patronage of the Earl of Winchelsea. The church is dedicated to the Holy Cross. The manor came by purchase into the possession of Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, who greatly enlarged and embellished the mansion, in which he successively entertained James I. and Charles I., with their respective courts. This stately edifice, on the breaking out of the civil war, was garrisoned by a small body of parliamentary troops, who, unable to sustain an attack of the royalists, set fire to the house, which, with all the costly furniture it contained, was burnt to the ground; the stables, situated at a short distance, being the only part of the buildings that escaped destruction: the site is now occupied by an elegant modern mansion."  [Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) ©Mel Lockie]