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Littlecote House
Littlecote House is a large Elizabethan country house and estate in the civil parishes of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat, in the English county of Wiltshire, about northeast of the Berkshire town of Hungerford. The estate includes 34 hectares of historic parklands and gardens, including a walled garden dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. In its grounds is Littlecote Roman Villa. A Grade I listed building, Littlecote House is now a hotel and leisure centre. History Early house The first Littlecote House was built during the 13th century and was the home of the de Calstone family from around 1290. In 1415 Elizabeth de Calstone married William Darrell and the Darrell family inherited the estate. Elizabeth Darrell's half-niece, also named Elizabeth Darrell, was a maid of honour to Henry VIII's first queen Catherine of Aragon and had a well-publicised affair with the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. 16th century In the mid-1530s, King Henry VIII is said to have courted his third wif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chilton Foliat
Chilton Foliat is a village and civil parish on the River Kennet in Wiltshire, England. The parish is in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is on the county boundary with West Berkshire and is about northwest of the Berkshire market town of Hungerford. The village is on the B4192 Hungerford-Swindon road, which was the A419 until 1977, when it was redesignated after the opening of the M4 motorway. The parish includes the hamlets of Straight Soley and Crooked Soley. History The ancient parish of Chilton Foliat straddled the Wiltshire/Berkshire border. In 1895 the Berkshire portion, including the village of Leverton and the Chilton Lodge estate, was transferred to Hungerford civil parish. Chilton Aircraft, a small manufacturer in the 1930s and 1940s, had its factory within the Chilton Lodge estate. From the estate of Lady Ward at Chilton Foilat, in 1942 U.S Army paratroopers trained with their British counterparts and deployed to combat in North ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was originally from Yorkshire. His family adopted the Lancastrian side in the Wars of Roses. His mother was Anne Skinner, and his father Henry, who had earlier been imprisoned and tortured by Richard III, had been a Privy Councillor of Henry VII and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509. Thomas followed his father to court after his education at St John's College, Cambridge. Entering the King's service, he was entrusted with many important diplomatic missions. In public life, his principal patron was Thomas Cromwell, after whose death he was recalled from abroad and imprisoned (1541). Though subsequently acquitted and released, shortly thereafter he died. His poems were circulated at court and may have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Tale Of Two Cities
''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In the Introduction to the ''Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction'', critic Don D'Ammassa argues that it is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed. As Dickens's best-known work of historical fiction, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is said to be one of the best-selling novels of all time. In 2003, the novel was ranked 63rd on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The novel has been adapted for film, television, radio, and the stage, and has continued to influence popular culture. Synopsis Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rokeby (poem)
''Rokeby'' (1813) is a narrative poem in six cantos with voluminous antiquarian notes by Walter Scott. It is set in Teesdale during the English Civil War. Background The first hint of ''Rokeby'' is found in a letter of 11 January 1811 from Scott to Lady Abercorn in which he says that although he is not currently engaged on a new poem he has 'sometimes thought of laying the scene during the great civil war in 1643'. In June he was offered 3000 guineas for the poem, which had not yet been begun. By 10 December he is thinking of setting the new work 'near Barnard Castle', and on the 20th he writes to his friend J. B. S. Morritt, owner of Rokeby Park, that he has in mind 'a fourth romance in verse, the theme during the English civil wars of Charles I. and the scene your own domain of Rokeby', and asking for detailed local information. The proceeds of the poem will help finance building work at his new home, Abbotsford. Composition seems to have started in the spring of 1812, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy'', '' Waverley'', '' Old Mortality'', ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' and '' The Bride of Lammermoor'', and the narrative poems '' The Lady of the Lake'' and '' Marmion''. He had a major impact on European and American literature. As an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory establishment, active in the Highland Society, long a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827–1829). His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the '' Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, and who is particularly noted for his systematic examination of the Avebury henge monument. The Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named after him, although there is considerable doubt as to whether the holes that he observed are those that currently bear the name. He was also a pioneer folklorist, collecting together a miscellany of material on customs, traditions and beliefs under the title "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme". He set out to compile county histories of both Wiltshire and Surrey, although both projects remained unfinished. His "Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum" (also unfinished) was the first attempt to compile a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Underwood (parapsychologist)
Peter Underwood, (16 May 1923 – 26 November 2014) was an English author, Television presenter, broadcaster and Parapsychology, parapsychologist. Underwood was born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Described as "an indefatigable ghost hunting, ghost hunter", he wrote many books which surveyed alleged hauntings within the United Kingdom - beginning the trend of comprehensive regional 'guides' to (purportedly) haunted places. One of his well-known investigations concerned Borley Rectory, which he also wrote about. Early life Born into a family who were Plymouth Brethren, Underwood had his first paranormal experience at the age of nine, when he claimed to have seen an apparition of his father, who had died earlier the same day, standing at the bottom of his bed. During his childhood, his maternal grandparents lived for a time at Rosehall, a seventeenth century Hertfordshire house which it was claimed was haunted, supposedly having a bedroom in which guests claimed to have seen the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bromley
Sir Thomas Bromley (153011 April 1587) was a 16th-century lawyer, judge and politician who established himself in the mid-Tudor period and rose to prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was successively Solicitor General and Lord Chancellor of England. He presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots and died three months after her execution. Background Thomas Bromley was born around 1530. He was the second son of :*George Bromley of Hodnet, close to Market Drayton in Shropshire, the son of William Bromley of Mitley and Beatrix Hill. :*Jane Lacon, daughter of Sir Thomas Lacon of Willey, Shropshire. The Bromleys originated in Staffordshire, but had acquired estates in neighbouring counties. They were of the middling landed gentry, like their allies and neighbours the Hills: the two families were to prosper together by seeking new sources of income, the Hills from commerce and the Bromleys through the law. George Bromley was a prominent member of the Inner Temple, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Shefford
Great Shefford (or West Shefford) is an English village and civil parish on the River Lambourn in the West Berkshire district of Berkshire. The present civil parish includes the historical parish of Little or East Shefford, a small, reduced community downstream. It also covers the village of Shefford Woodlands, about south-west of Great Shefford, near Junction 14 on the M4 motorway. Toponymy The toponym of the Sheffords derives from the Old English for sheep ford. Amenities Great Shefford village has a primary school that belongs to Chaddleworth St. Andrew's and Shefford Church of England Federated Primary Schools. It also has a pub-restaurant, The Great Shefford, a shop and a petrol station. Churches St Mary The Church of England parish church of St Mary is one of two existing round-tower churches in Berkshire. The other is St Gregory's parish church at nearby Welford. Unlike the three round-towered churches in Sussex, where the towers are plain flint cylinders with few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Hungerford (Knight Of Farley)
Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight of Farley (died December 1596) was an English landowner. In his lifetime he was popularly referred to as the "Knight of Farley" for his renowned sporting abilities. In his youth he recovered the lands forfeited by his father's attainder, and was favoured by Queen Mary, whose Maid of Honour, Anne Basset, was his first wife. In 1568, he sued his second wife, Anne (née Dormer), for divorce. He failed to prove the scandalous grounds he alleged against her, but chose to be imprisoned in the Fleet rather than support his wife or pay the costs awarded against him by the court. Biography Walter Hungerford was the only son of Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, and his first wife, Susan Danvers, daughter of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, by the heiress Anne Stradling. Hungerford succeeded his father on 28 July 1540. By an Act of Parliament in 1542 he was restored in blood, but did not immediately regain his father's title an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Hungerford
Anne, Lady Hungerford (née Dormer; 1525–1603) was an English lady of the royal court during the reign of Queen Mary I, and poet. Biography Anne was a daughter of Sir William Dormer by his first wife, Mary, daughter of Sir William Sidney and Anne (née Pakenham). She was the sister of Jane Dormer, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary I, and later wife of the Duke of Feria. Both Anne and Jane were prominent recusants. In 1558 Queen Mary gave permission for Sir Walter Hungerford, who had earlier been married to the Queen's Maid of Honour, Anne Basset, to marry Anne Dormer as his second wife. In 1568 Hungerford sued for divorce, alleging that his wife had tried to poison him some years earlier, and that she had committed adultery with William Darrell (of Littlecote, Wiltshire), and had had a child by him. Hungerford failed to prove the allegations in court, and subsequently spent three years in Fleet Prison for his refusal to support his wife or to pay the £250 in costs awarded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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