AUDLEY-END, (Essex) 1 m. S. from Saffron-Walden, and 34 from London, is a seat of the E. of Suffolk, once a royal palace,
the biggest in England, of which there still remains one large court. 'Twas built out of the ruins of a mon. by Thomas,
Ld. Audley, who designed it to be a palace for K. Jam. I. who made him his Ld. High Tr. and created him E. of Suffolk;
but, when it was finished with all the grand taste of that time, his Majesty said, it might do well enough for a Ld. Trea.
but it was too much for a K. and therefore he turned it upon the E's hands, who is said to have had an estate then of
50,000 l. a year. K. Char. II. indeed purchased it for a royal palace, as the builder intended it, and mortgaged the
hearth-tax to James, E. of Suffolk, to answer the purchase; but, upon the revolution, when the said tax was taken off, and
the State not in a condition to spare the purchase money, K. Will. regranted the house to the family; upon which, Henry,
E. of Suffolk and Bindon, pulled down a great part of it.