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West Wycombe House
West Wycombe Park is a country house built between 1740 and 1800 near the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It was conceived as a pleasure palace for the 18th-century libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet. The house is a long rectangle with four façades that are columned and pedimented, three theatrically so. The house encapsulates the entire progression of British 18th-century architecture from early idiosyncratic Palladian to the Neoclassical, although anomalies in its design make it architecturally unique. The mansion is set within an 18th-century landscaped park containing many small temples and follies, which act as satellites to the greater temple, the house. The house, which is a Grade I listed building, was given to the National Trust in 1943 by Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet (1896–1966), an action strongly resented by his heir. Dashwood retained ownership of the surrounding estate and the contents of the house, most of whi ...
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The South Front Of West Wycombe Park
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ...
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Villa La Rotonda
Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza in northern Italy designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The villa's correct name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but it is also known as "La Rotonda", "Villa Rotonda", "Villa Capra", and "Villa Almerico Capra". The name ''Capra'' derives from the Capra brothers, who completed the building after it was ceded to them in 1592. Along with other works by Palladio, the building is conserved as part of the World Heritage Site " City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto". Inspiration In 1565 a priest, Paolo Almerico, on his retirement from the Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), decided to return to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and build a country house. This house, later known as 'La Rotonda', was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent build ...
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Hellfire Club
Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high-society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood's Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe. Such clubs, rumour had it, served as the meeting places of "persons of quality"Ashe p.48. who wished to take part in what were socially perceived as immoral acts, and the members were often involved in politics. Neither the activities nor membership of the clubs are easy to ascertain. The clubs allegedly had distant ties to an elite society known only as "The Order of the Second Circle".Blackett-Ord p. 46Ashe p. 111. The first official Hellfire Club was founded in London in 1718, by Philip, Duke of Wharton and a handful of other high-society friends.Blackett-Ord p. 44 The most notorious club associated with the name was established in England by Francis Dashwood, and met irregularly from around 1749 to around 1760, and possibly up until 1766.Ashe. In ...
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Baron Le Despencer
Baron le Despencer is a title that has been created several times by Hereditary peer#Writs of summons, writ in the Peerage of England. Creation Hugh le Despenser (sheriff), Sir Hugh le Despenser I was a large landowner in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland. He was appointed High Sheriff of Staffordshire and High Sheriff of Shropshire, Shropshire in 1222 and High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1226 and 1238. The first creation was in 1295, when Hugh the elder Despenser was summoned to the Model Parliament. He was the eldest son of the sometime Justiciar Hugh Despenser (justiciar), Hugh Despenser (d. 1265), son of Hugh le Despenser (sheriff), Sir Hugh le Despenser I (above). The sometime Justiciar was summoned in 1264 to Simon de Montfort's Parliament and is sometimes considered the first baron. Hugh the younger Despenser, son of Hugh the elder, was also summoned to Parliament in 1314, during his father's lifetime, the second creation of the title. Both elde ...
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Queen Anne Style Architecture
The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. In other English-speaking parts of the world, New World Queen Anne Revival architecture embodies entirely different styles. Overview With respect to British architecture, the term is mostly used for domestic buildings up to the size of a manor house, and usually designed elegantly but simply by local builders or architects, rather than the grand palaces of noble magnates. The term is not often used for churches. Contrary to the American usage of the term, it is characterised by strongly bilateral symmetry, with an Italianate or Palladian-derived pediment on the front formal elevation. Colours were made to contrast with the use of carefully chosen red brick for the walls, with deta ...
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Manor House
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term is today loosely applied to various country houses, frequently dating from the Late Middle Ages, which formerly housed the landed gentry. Manor houses were sometimes fortified, albeit not as fortified as castles, and were intended more for show than for defencibility. They existed in most European countries where feudalism was present. Function The lord of the manor may have held several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron, spread across a kingdom, which he occupied only on occasional visits. Even so, the business of the manor was directed and controlled by regular manorial courts, which appointed manorial officials such as the bailiff, granted ...
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Samuel Dashwood
Sir Samuel Dashwood JP ( – 12 August 1705) was an English merchant and Tory politician. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1702. Early life The son of Francis Dashwood, a London merchant, by his wife Alice Sleigh, he was a brother of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet, and cousin of Sir Robert Dashwood, 1st Baronet. His sister Sarah married Fulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke in 1665. Career Dashwood was elected Sheriff of London, and was also knighted, in 1683, and was a Member of Parliament for the City of London in 1685 and 1690. Dashwood's father was a farmer of the excise, and he himself became a commissioner of excise in 1683. An alderman in 1687, he was removed by James II for refusing to countenance the suspension of the Corporation Act. In 1702, a colonel in the Lieutenancy of the City, Dashwood was made a Justice of the Peace, based on his willingness to use judicial powers. In that year Dashwood was Lord Mayor of London, and entertained Queen Anne at the London Guild ...
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Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet
Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet ( – 4 November 1724), of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, London, and West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was a British merchant, landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1713. Early life Francis Dashwood was the third son of Francis Dashwood and his wife Alice Sleigh, daughter of Richard Sleigh of Derbyshire. He was a brother of Sir Samuel Dashwood, Lord Mayor of London, and a cousin of Sir Robert Dashwood, 1st Baronet. His sister Sarah married Fulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke in 1665. His father was a merchant trading with the country of Turkey, and an Alderman of London. Career Dashwood and his brother Samuel joined their father's business early and became leading silk importers. He became a Freeman of the Vintners' Company in 1680. He was able to loan the government £1,000 in March 1690 and to establish a residence at Wanstead Essex. He was an assistant of the Royal African Company for the years 1693 to 169 ...
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Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tutor or family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old). The custom—which flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s and was associated with a standard itinerary—served as an educational rite of passage. Though it was primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of other Protestant Northern European nations, and, from the second half of the 18th century, by some South and North Americans. By the mid-18th century, the Grand Tour had become a regular feature of aristocratic education in Central Europe as well, although it was restricted to the higher nobility. The tradition declined in Europe as enthusiasm fo ...
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Ragley Hall
Ragley Hall in the parish of Arrow in Warwickshire is a stately home, located south of Alcester and eight miles (13 km) west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the ancestral seat of the Seymour-Conway family, Marquesses of Hertford. History The house was built by Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway (1623–1683) to the designs of William Hurlbert, with modifications by Robert Hooke and was completed after his death in 1683. The interior was subsequently modified on at least three occasions, to the designs of James Gibbs circa 1750–56; of James Wyatt circa 1778–83 and of William Tasker circa 1871–73. It became the home of Anne Conway and she was visited there by a number of notable people including Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Thomas Vaughan, Lilias Skene, Henry More, Ezechiel Foxcroft, Elizabeth of Bohemia and Christian Knorr von Rosenroth. Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont was Anne's physician from 1671 until her death in 1679. The secondary seat of the Seymour-Conway ...
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Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park (by Humphry Repton), as well as more recently added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. Pre-20th century Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was set out and founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1145. Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell family and the Dukes of Bedford, who demolished the original abbey building and built their house on the monastic site, although the name ''Abbey'' was retained. The Abbey was largely rebuilt starting in 1744 by the architects Henry Fl ...
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