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Branston Hall
Branston Hall is a country house in the village of Branston, Lincolnshire, England. The hall, a Grade II listed building, is set in 88 acres (3.56 square kilometres) of wooded parkland and lakes. Originally commissioned as the family seat of the Melville family, the house became an RAF hospital during the Second World War, and then a sanatorium run by Lindsey County Council.''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire'' 1933, p.103 It lay derelict in the 1970s and 1980s, underwent restoration and conversion into a retirement home in the late 1980s, and is now restored and converted into a three-star hotel. Weddings are often held at the hotel. Designed by John Macvicar Anderson in 1885, the house was built in Elizabethan Revival style. Early history Branston Hall Grounds were the inherited estate of Sir Cecil Wray 11th Baronet (1678–1736) (a descendant of Catherine Parr), whose family had been Baronets and parliamentarians in Lincolnshire since 1611 (see also Wray Baronets), and w ...
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Branston Hall
Branston Hall is a country house in the village of Branston, Lincolnshire, England. The hall, a Grade II listed building, is set in 88 acres (3.56 square kilometres) of wooded parkland and lakes. Originally commissioned as the family seat of the Melville family, the house became an RAF hospital during the Second World War, and then a sanatorium run by Lindsey County Council.''Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire'' 1933, p.103 It lay derelict in the 1970s and 1980s, underwent restoration and conversion into a retirement home in the late 1980s, and is now restored and converted into a three-star hotel. Weddings are often held at the hotel. Designed by John Macvicar Anderson in 1885, the house was built in Elizabethan Revival style. Early history Branston Hall Grounds were the inherited estate of Sir Cecil Wray 11th Baronet (1678–1736) (a descendant of Catherine Parr), whose family had been Baronets and parliamentarians in Lincolnshire since 1611 (see also Wray Baronets), and w ...
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Alexander Samuel Leslie Melville
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Aleksander and Aleksandr. Related names and diminutives include Iskandar, Alec, Alek, Alex, Alexandre, Aleks, Aleksa and Sander; feminine forms include Alexandra, Alexandria, and Sasha. Etymology The name ''Alexander'' originates from the (; 'defending men' or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb (; 'to ward off, avert, defend') and the noun (, genitive: , ; meaning 'man'). It is an example of the widespread motif of Greek names expressing "battle-prowess", in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy battle line. The earliest attested form of the name, is the Mycenaean Greek feminine anthroponym , , (/Alexandra/), written in the Linear B syllabic script. Alaksandu, alternatively called ''Alakasandu'' ...
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Ruscus Aculeatus
''Ruscus aculeatus'', known as butcher's-broom, is a low evergreen dioecious Eurasian shrub, with flat shoots known as cladodes that give the appearance of stiff, spine-tipped leaves. Small greenish flowers appear in spring, and are borne singly in the centre of the cladodes. The female flowers are followed by a red berry, and the seeds are bird-distributed, but the plant also spreads vegetatively by means of rhizomes. It is native to Eurasia and some northern parts of Africa. ''Ruscus aculeatus'' occurs in woodlands and hedgerows, where it is tolerant of deep shade, and also on coastal cliffs. Likely due to its attractive winter/spring color, ''Ruscus aculeatus'' has become a fairly common landscape plant. It is also widely planted in gardens, and has spread as a garden escapee in many areas outside its native range. The plant grows well in zones 7 to 9 on the USDA hardiness zone map. The Latin specific epithet ''aculeatus'' means “prickly”. History Etymology The commo ...
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Galium Odoratum
''Galium odoratum'', the sweet woodruff or sweetscented bedstraw, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae, native to much of Europe from Spain and Ireland to Russia, as well as Western Siberia, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, China and Japan. It is also sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in the United States and Canada. It is widely cultivated for its flowers and its sweet-smelling foliage. A herbaceous plant, it grows to long, often lying flat on the ground or supported by other plants. It owes its sweet smell to the odoriferous agent coumarin, and is sometimes used as a flavouring agent due to its chemical content. Description The leaves are simple, lanceolate, glabrous, long, and borne in whorls of 6–9. The small (4–7 mm diameter) flowers are produced in cymes, each white with four petals joined together at the base. The fruits are 2–4 mm diameter, produced singly, and each is covered in tiny hooked bristles which help disperse them b ...
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Lamium Galeobdolon
''Lamium galeobdolon'', commonly known as yellow archangel, artillery plant, aluminium plant, or yellow weasel-snout, is a widespread wildflower in Europe, and has been introduced elsewhere as a garden plant. It displays the zygomorphic flower morphology, opposite leaves, and square stems typical of the mint family, Lamiaceae. The flowers are soft yellow and borne in axial clusters, with a prominent 'hood' (the dorsal lobe of the corolla). It spreads easily and so has been commonly used as an ornamental ground cover. It can be invasive in places where it is not native and caution must be taken when planting in these areas. Description Yellow archangel is a large-leaved perennial plant with underground runners growing to a height of about . The paired opposite leaves are stalked, broadly ovate with a cordate base and toothed margin. The underside of the leaves is often purplish. The flowers grow in whorls in a terminal spike. The calyx is five-lobed. The corolla is yellow, lon ...
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Phalacrocorax Carbo
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. The genus name is Latinised Ancient Greek, from φαλακρός (''phalakros'', "bald") and κόραξ (''korax'', "raven"), and ''carbo'' is Latin for "charcoal". It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America. Taxonomy and etymology The long white-breasted cormorant ''P. c. lucidus'' found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast. It is often treated as a full species, ''Phalacrocorax lucidus'' (e.g. , ). In addition to the Australasian and African forms, ''Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae'' and ''P. c. lucidus'' mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including ''P. c. sinensis'' (western Europ ...
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Tawny Owl
The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is commonly found in woodlands across Europe to western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. It is a stocky, medium-sized owl, whose underparts are pale with dark streaks, and whose upper body may be either brown or grey. (In several subspecies, individuals may be of either color.) The tawny owl typically makes its nest in a tree hole where it can protect its eggs and young against potential predators. It is non-migratory and highly territorial: as a result, when young birds grow up and leave the parental nest, if they cannot find a vacant territory to claim as their own, they will often starve. The tawny owl is a nocturnal bird of prey. It is able to hunt successfully at night because of its vision and hearing adaptations and its ability to fly silently. It usually hunts by dropping suddenly from a perch and seizing its prey, which it swallows whole. It hunts mainly rodents, although in urbanized areas its d ...
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Muntjac Deer
Muntjacs ( ), also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, (URL is Google Books) are small deer of the genus ''Muntiacus'' native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland. Most species are listed as Least Concern or Data Deficient by the IUCN, although others such as the black muntjac, Bornean yellow muntjac, and giant muntjac are Vulnerable, Near Threatened, and Critically Endangered, respectively. Name The present name is a borrowing of the Latinized form of the Dutch , which was borrowed from the Sundanese ''mēncēk''. The Latin form first appeared as in Zimmerman in 1780. An erroneous alternative name of 'Mastreani deer' has its origins in a mischievous Wikipedia entry from 2011 and is incorrect. Description The present-day species are native to Asia and can be found in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Indonesian isl ...
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Acer Pseudoplatanus
''Acer pseudoplatanus'', known as the sycamore in the British Isles and as the sycamore maple in the United States, is a species of flowering plant in the Sapindus, soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, tolerant of wind and coastal exposure. It is native to Central Europe and Western Asia, from France eastward to Ukraine, northern Turkey and the Caucasus and southward in the mountains of Italy and northern Iberia. The sycamore establishes itself easily from seed and was introduced to the British Isles by 1500. It is now Naturalisation (biology), naturalised there and in other parts of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, where it may become an invasive species. The sycamore can grow to a height of about and the branches form a broad, rounded Crown (botany), crown. The Bark (botany), bark is grey, smooth when young and later flaking in irregular patches. The leaves grow on long Petiole (botany), leafstalks and are lar ...
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Beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engleriana'' subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known ''Fagus'' subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech (''Fagus sylvatica'') is the most commonly cultivated. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, w ...
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Charles Brodrick, 6th Viscount Midleton
Charles Brodrick, 6th Viscount Midleton (14 September 1791 – 2 December 1863) was a British nobleman. The son of Charles Brodrick, Archbishop of Cashel, and Mary Woodward, he succeeded to the peerage on the 1 November 1848. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge University and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1813 to practice as a barrister. He married Emma Stapleton on the 5 May 1825, with whom he had two daughters: Mary Emma Brodrick (20 Feb 1826 – 25 May 1896) and Albinia Frances Brodrick (5 May 1831 – 18 Mar 1918), the latter being an ancestress of English writer/comedienne Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Brodrick was an active member of several Anglican charities and missionary organisations, including the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and ...
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Samuel Smith (1754–1834)
Samuel Smith (14 April 1754 – 12 March 1834) was a British Tory Member of Parliament and banker. Biography Samuel Smith the fourth son of Abel Smith, a wealthy Nottingham banker and Member of Parliament. Four of his brothers were also Members of Parliament and one, Robert, was raised to the peerage as Baron Carrington. A portion of the family wealth was devoted to buying control of two pocket boroughs, Wendover and Midhurst, and Carrington kept the seats here almost exclusively for use by various members of the Smith family until his power was ended by the Great Reform Act. Smith entered Parliament in 1788 as member for St Germans, and was an MP for the next 44 years, also representing Leicester (1790–1818), Midhurst (1818–1820) and Wendover (1820–1832). He and his son Abel were Wendover's last MPs, as they sat together as its members for the last two years before the borough's abolition. In 1826, being the longest continually-serving MP, he became Father of the House. ...
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