William's absence from the realm, the passing of which into law was closely followed by his retirement or removal from office, his last appearance in court being on 14 May 1690. Reputation So brief a tenure of office at so advanced an age afforded Maynard little or no opportunity for the display of high judicial powers. As to his merits, however, all parties were agreed; the bench, as Thomas Fuller quaintly wrote before the Restoration, seeming "sick with long longing for his sitting thereon". Roger North admits that he was "the best old book lawyer of his time". Clarendon speaks of his "eminent parts", "great learning", and "signal reputation". Anthony Wood praises his "great reading and knowledge in the more profound and perplexed parts of the law", and his devotion to "his mother the university of Oxon". As a politician, his moderation and consistency were generally recognised, though for his part in the impeachments of Strafford and Stafford he was savagely attacked by Roscommon in his Ghost of the late House of Commons (1680–1). Though hardly eloquent, Maynard was a singularly facile and fluent speaker (Roscommon sneers at "his accumulative hackney tongue" and could sometimes be crushing in retort. Jeffreys once taxing him in open court with having forgotten his law, he is said to have replied: "In that case I must have forgotten a great deal more than your lordship ever knew." He humorously defined advocacy as ars bablativa. To Maynard we owe the unique edition of the reports of Richard de Winchedon, being the Year Books of Edward II, covering substantially the entire reign to Trinity term 1326, together with excerpts from the records of Edward I, London (1678–9). Gunnersbury Park Maynard amassed a large fortune, bought the manor of Gunnersbury, and there in 1663 built from designs by Inigo Jones or his pupil Webb a palace, Gunnersbury House, (afterwards the residence of the Princess Amelia, daughter of George II). He died there on 9 October 1690, his body lying in state until the 25th, when it was interred with great pomp in Ealing Church. Family and posterity Maynard married, firstly, Elizabeth Henley, daughter of Andrew Henley of Taunton, Somerset who had three sons and four daughters. She was buried in Ealing Church on 4 January 1655. He married secondly, Jane Austen, widow of Edward Austen and daughter of Cheney Selhurst of Tenterden. She was buried in Ealing