of an important noble, the new mansion continued to play host to important guests. Wriothesley's son, the second Earl of Southampton entertained both Edward VI and his sister Elizabeth I. Under the fourth Earl, Titchfield was host to Charles I twice, once in 1625 in company with Queen Henrietta Maria, the second time in November 1647 when the king was on the run from Parliamentary forces after having escaped from the Isle of Wight. Charles II visited the next owner of the house, Edward, Earl of Gainsborough in 1675. From the Earls of Gainsborough Titchfield passed to the Dukes of Beaufort who lived at Place House until 1741, at which point the estate was sold to the Delme family. They lived there for another forty years until, in 1781, a decision was made to abandon the mansion and deliberately demolish much of it to create a romantic ruin. When this happened local people took stone from the abbey for their homes; evidence can be seen in walls and foundations of older houses in Titchfield village. Much, though, is inside the buildings; in The Bugle Hotel in Titchfield, for example, a big fireplace was salvaged from the ruins. Present day Though a great deal has been destroyed, there are still major remains of the abbey and Place House to be seen. In fact, the pulling down of Place House has revealed more of the abbey than would otherwise be visible. The nave of the church still stands to full height and with it Wriothesley's gatehouse. To the east of the gatehouse ruins, the barest outline of the former church can be seen, including the choir and transepts. Fragments of the cloister buildings survive, including the entrance arches to the chapter house and library in the east range. In the abbey's grounds, the fishponds have been maintained and are used regularly for fishing. In addition, to the west of the abbey, and outside of the wall ringing the English Heritage site, there is a fragment of an outlying abbey building, the use of which is not recorded. Substantial stretches of the late mediaeval tile floors survive to this day. An inscription which used to lie before the entrance to the canons' refectory, was later covered and preserved beneath the steps leading up to Wriothesley's banqueting hall. Two other patches of tiling survive to the north of the gatehouse. Following the expulsion of