Lyddington Palace, Rutland In the care of English Heritage. A residence of the Bishop of Lincoln, converted into an almshouse, offers a unique insight into the realities of grand domestic life in England in about 1500.
BY a deed dated November 6, 1600, Sir Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley (and later 1st Earl of Exeter), founded an almshouse called the Jesus Hospital at Lyddington. The new institution, governed by a warden, was to support a community of 12 poor men and two women in perpetuity. According to its regulations or ‘Ordynaunces’, issued in March 1601, the community members were to be selected by their patron from among those of good character.
The men and women had to be over the ages of 30 or 45 respectively and were to receive small weekly allowances of money and fuel besides a livery of blue gowns and black caps. They were to occupy themselves appropriately during the day and observe a regular regimen of prayer, including all baptisms and funerals in the parish church.
The English nobility had been founding almshouses constituted in broadly the terms of the Jesus Hospital since the early 15th century. These institutions characteristically accommodated communities of symbolic size—in this case, 12 being the number of the Apostles—and were governed by a master or warden according to written statutes. The Reformation had caused an almost complete cessation of such foundations, but, in the early 17th century, there is apparent a remarkable resurgence of interest in institutions of this kind. Where the Jesus Hospital strikingly differs from its peers, however, is the way in which it was accommodated.
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Denne historien er fra March 01 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
