IN 1539, having acquired and extended the grand palace built on the banks of the River Thames by his disgraced former chancellor Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII established the ‘Honour’ of Hampton Court by Act of Parliament, annexing manors and lands throughout Middlesex and Surrey. The statute provided for the creation of a new forest or ‘chase’ over the claimed Surrey lands, from the Thames on the south side of Hampton Court manor to Cobham and Weybridge.
The chase was deeply unpopular among the ‘men of Molsey and other towns in the chace’ who protested vigorously at the damage done by the deer and the loss of their commons and pastures. After Henry’s death in 1547, the deer were moved to Windsor Forest and the former tenants—and their much-needed rent rolls—were reinstated.
Hampton Court’s Thames-side location and green open spaces were much appreciated by Henry’s successors. Charles I had grand plans for waterworks in the grounds, but abandoned the scheme at the outbreak of the Civil War, after which Oliver Cromwell moved to Hampton Court and made his own improvements. The Restoration under Charles II saw further heavy expenditure on the palace and gardens, then William and Mary had the palace largely rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren from 1689 onwards.
Denne historien er fra February 23, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 23, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
