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Gorhambury
Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, is a ruined Elizabethan mansion, a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It was built in 1563–68 by Nicholas Bacon (courtier), Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord Keeper, and was visited a number of times by Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. It is a Grade I listed building. The house was built partly from bricks taken from the old St Albans Abbey, Abbey buildings at St Albans, then in process of demolition following the Benedictine priory's Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolution some 25 years earlier. It was used as a residence by his youngest son, the polymath (scientist, philosopher, politician, statesman and essayist) Sir Francis Bacon, before being bequeathed by him to his former secretary, Sir Thomas Meautys, who married Anne Bacon, the great-granddaughter of Sir Nicholas. The estate passed in 1652 to Anne's second husband Sir Harbottle Grim ...
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Earl Of Verulam
Earl of Verulam is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam, James Grimston, 4th Viscount Grimston. He was made Viscount Grimston (in the peerage of the United Kingdom) at the same time. Verulam had previously represented St Albans (UK Parliament constituency), St Albans (Roman Verulamium) in the British House of Commons, House of Commons. In 1808 he had also succeeded his maternal cousin as tenth Lord Forrester (in the Peerage of Scotland). He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. Grimston was a Tory politician and held minor office in the first two governments of the Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Earl of Derby. His son, the third Earl, represented St Albans in Parliament as a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative. His grandson, the sixth Earl (who succeeded his elder brother) was nominated to the traditionally safe seat of St Albans (UK Parliament constituency), St Albans for the party. the ...
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Gorhambury House
Gorhambury House is a Palladian-style house near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It was built between 1777 and 1784 to replace Old Gorhambury House, which was left to fall into ruin. It was designed by Sir Robert Taylor and commissioned by James Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston. Grimston's son was made Earl of Verulam, and the building is currently the home of the 7th Earl of Verulam. Features of interest inside include a fireplace designed by Piranesi. The house is Grade II* listed. It is a member of Historic Houses Association and is open for tours at certain times. The surrounding estate includes much of the site of the Roman city of Verulamium Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon .... References External links The Gorhambury Estate Country house ...
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Robert Taylor (architect)
Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England. Early life Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor, spending time as a pupil of Sir Henry Cheere.Sir_Robert_Taylor's_Foundation
Despite some important commissions, including a bust of London merchant Christopher Emmott (died 1745) today held in the church of St Bartholomew, ,

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Nicholas Bacon (courtier)
Sir Nicholas Bacon (28 December 1510 – 20 February 1579) was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon. Life He was born at Chislehurst, Kent, the second son of Robert Bacon (1479–1548) of Drinkstone, Suffolk, by his wife Eleanor (Isabel) Cage. He graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1527, and, after a period in Paris, he entered Gray's Inn, being called to the Bar in 1533. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII gave him a grant of the manors of Redgrave, Botesdale and Gislingham in Suffolk, and Gorhambury, Hertfordshire. Gorhambury belonged to St Albans Abbey and lay near the site of the vanished Roman city of Verulamium (modern day St Albans). From 1563 to 1568 he built a new house, Old Gorhambury House (now a ruin), which later became the home of Francis Bacon, his youngest son. In 1545 he became a Member of ...
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Prodigy House
Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the periods of Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean architecture, though the term may be restricted to a core period of roughly 1570 to 1620. Many of the grandest were built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her large retinue as they made their annual royal progress around her realm. Many are therefore close to major roads, often in the English Midlands. The term originates with the architectural historian Sir John Summerson, and has been generally adopted. He called them "...the most daring of all English buildings." The houses fall within the broad style of Renaissance architecture, but represent a distinctive English take on the style, mainly reliant on books for their knowledge of developments on the Continent. Andrea Palladio (1508–1580 ...
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Thomas Meautys
Sir Thomas Meautys (1592–1649) was an English civil servant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1640. Biography Meautys was the son of Thomas Meautys of West Ham and of St Julian's Hospital, Hertfordshire, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Coningsby of North Mimms. His elder brother, Henry, was also a Member of Parliament. He became the private secretary to Francis Bacon. In 1619, he was made clerk to His Majesty's Council. He is credited, with William Rawley, as being one of two key clients of Bacon who remained loyal to the former Lord Chancellor in his disgrace. Meautys eventually paid for a funerary monument to Bacon at his gravesite in St. Albans. After Bacon's fall, Meautys became a protégé of Lord Keeper Coventry, High Steward of Cambridge from 1626 to 1640. In 1621, Meautys was made a freeman and elected an alderman of Cambridge. On the same day, he was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge. He was clerk of the Privy Cou ...
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James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston
James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston (9 May 1747 – 30 December 1808) was a British peer, born the heir to his Irish peerage, and Member of Parliament whose service in Parliament for seven years led to his, and his male descendants', ennoblement into the Peerage of Great Britain. Grimston was the son of James Grimston, 2nd Viscount Grimston, and Mary Bucknall. He was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1773 but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. He was instead elected to the House of Commons for St Albans in 1783, a seat he held until the next year's election, where he instead stood for and represented the larger, county-level seat of Hertfordshire from 1784 to 1790. In 1790 he was created Baron Verulam, of Gorhambury in the County of Hertford, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords. Lord Grimston married Harriot Walter (1756– ...
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Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet (27 January 1603 – 2 January 1685) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1685 and was Speaker in 1660. During the English Civil War he remained a Parliamentarian but was sympathetic to the Royalists. Life Grimston was born at Bradfield Hall, near Manningtree, the son of Sir Harbottle Grimston, 1st Baronet (d. 1648). He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was recorder of Harwich and recorder of Colchester and elected MP for Harwich in 1628. As member for Colchester, Grimston sat in the Short Parliament of 1640, and he represented the same borough during the Long Parliament, speedily becoming a leading member of the popular party. He attacked Archbishop Laud with great vigour and was a member of the important committees of the parliament, including the one appointed in consequence of the attempted seizure of the five member ...
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John Grimston, 7th Earl Of Verulam
John Duncan Grimston, 7th Earl of Verulam (born 21 April 1951), styled Viscount Grimston between 1960 and 1973, is a British peer. Early life Grimston is the son of John Grimston, 6th Earl of Verulam. He succeeded in the earldom in 1973 on the death of his father. Business career For 14 years until 1996 he was a director of corporate finance at Barings Bank. He was a Managing Director of ABN-AMRO Bank from 1996 to 2000. He was a Director and Vice-Chairman of Kleinwort Benson Private Bank from 2001 to 2008. He is currently Chairman of Grimston Trust Ltd and founding partner of the Verulam Consulting group. Grimston has founded two registered charities: The Friends of St Michael's Church, and The West Herts Environmental Foundation. Personal life Lord Verulam married Dione Smith in 1976. They have four children: James Grimston, Viscount Grimston and heir apparent, Hugo Guy Sylvester Grimston, Flora Grimston and Sam George Grimston. Notes and references ;Notes ;References ...
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St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman Britain, Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. Name St Albans takes its name from the first British saint, Saint Alban, Alban. The most elaborate version of his story, Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', relates that he lived in Verulamium, sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, when Christians were suffering persecution. Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from his persecutors and sheltered him in his house, where he became so impressed with the priest's piety that he converted to Christianity. When the authorities searched Alban's house, he put on the priest's cloa ...
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River Ver
The Ver is a long chalk stream in Hertfordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Colne. Course The source is in the grounds of Lynch Lodge, Kensworth Lynch on the west side of the A5 trunk road and stays on the west side for some half mile or so. It then crosses through a culvert into Markyate Cell, afterwards crosses under the A5 in culvert and runs through Markyate. The river exits above ground at the southern end of Markyate, and on through Flamstead, Redbourn, St Albans and Park Street, finally joining the River Colne at Bricket Wood. The Ver is a chalk stream, which is partly a seasonal winterbourne north of Redbourn. However, many of its natural features have been compromised as a result of being canalised during the construction of the artificial lakes at Verulamium Park in St Albans in the 1930s following the archaeological excavations of Verulamium by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and his wife Tessa. During the 1960s and 1970s it suffered serious problems as a re ...
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Water Garden
Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes also house waterfowl, or ornamental fish, in which case it may be called a fish pond. They vary enormously in size and style. Water gardening is gardening that is concerned with growing plants adapted to lakes, rivers and ponds, often specifically to their shallow margins. Although water gardens can be almost any size or depth, they are often small and relatively shallow, perhaps less than twenty inches (50 cm) in depth. This is because most aquatic plants are depth sensitive and require a specific water depth in order to thrive; this can be helped by planting them in baskets raised off the bottom. A water garden may include a bog garden for plants that enjoy a waterlogged soil. Sometimes their primary purpose is to grow a particular species or group of aqua ...
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